Oyster season got off to a sluggish start this month with only nine out of Texas’ 29 public harvest areas open to commercial fishers. And last Thursday, the Parks and Wildlife Commission voted to close 2,100 acres across three bays near Rockport permanently as a sanctuary for oysters, fish, and other wildlife. Although this new sanctuary takes away just 3 percent of the state’s total harvest area, it’s become a flashpoint for fishers. Because of temporary closures elsewhere, by the end of last oyster season, this small area was providing a third of the harvest.
Hundreds of people from commercial fishing families protested outside the Parks and Wildlife headquarters in Austin. Fishers and conservationists alike want to see more oysters along the Gulf Coast, but they disagree profoundly on how to manage oyster reefs and what the future of oystering in Texas should look like.
“How can we survive if you don’t let us work?” the protestors’ signs read.
