State ponders Gulf oysters’ future with livelihoods at stake

AUSTIN — The Texas oyster fishermen came from coastal cities by bus, traveling before sunrise to fight for work they argue the state is wrongly taking away. They overcame nerves, tears and anger to tell the nine parks and wildlife commissioners what their pending decision would mean for fishermen’s lives.

State officials have temporarily closed nearly all public oyster harvest areas, saying that doing so will allow fishermen a chance at harvesting oysters in the future. The Texas Parks and Wildlife commissioners were set to decide at a recent hearing whether to close some spots permanently — a choice overshadowed by the reality that the Gulf oysters that endured for generations might have a bleak future.

The dilemma was one of many impossible choices ahead as the environment shifts with climate change. The fishermen rely on the November through April oyster harvest to pay their bills. For some, it’s all they feel qualified to do. But sustainability advocates and state regulators say the reefs must be protected, or else the whole ecosystem will suffer.

The only way to protect the reefs immediately is to let the young oysters grow unimpeded, they say. But oysters need mild weather to survive and with climate change they might not get it. The coming years are expected to bring stronger hurricanes and heavier rains as well as potentially severe droughts. Hurricanes bury oysters in sediment. Heavy rains and droughts mess up the salinity of the bays.

Amid this, constant consumer demand means the oysters that do survive are plucked up by fishermen. Visitors from around the world want to try Gulf oysters, and the high-end shellfish remain a restaurant staple for local diners.

The fishermen argue they can dredge the reefs to collect bigger oysters and improve them simultaneously. Like farmers tilling their land, they say, it’s in their best interest to keep the reefs healthy. Why would they overharvest if oysters are their livelihood? Why can’t the state back off ?

Jon Shapley / Staff photographer Pablo Cervantes, an oyster fisherman, argues with a former game warden before a Texas Parks and Wildlife commission meeting on March 24 at the department’s headquarters in Austin.