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Tyler · Site Admin Joined: 06 Mar 2006 Posts: 12865

I am all for it. They turn the oysters in bag nets making the perfect raw oysters!

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Rebecca of Sunnybrookfarm · Full Grown Flour Bluffian Joined: 01 May 2008 Posts: 3973

TPWD has been getting pressure from both sides to do leases....I'm all for it, as I believe it will cut down on the indiscriminate scraping of our Texas bays....
becky
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KingKilla · Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2019 2:46 pm Post subject: Oyster leases

The discussions that I have heard for leases are for Oyster AQUACULTURE leases. I don't think that would reduce the amount of oyster boats out there hitting the reefs because I doubt the oyster boat folks will have the cash to get into the aquaculture side of things. Maybe I am wrong here but that's what I have heard.

As fishermen and boaters we have to be careful about one thing here...our access and rights. If it gets done we better be sure that these leases are written up in a way that prohibits the lessee from blocking public access to the area and this needs to be 100% airtight in the way it is worded. Otherwise we may end up with large areas of bay that are off limits to anyone besides the lessee. Just something to keep in mind.

I don't know about you but I would rather have access to my fishing spots than a nasty old oyster.

TroutSupport · Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2019 2:07 pm Post subject:

I agree, IF they do it, it should be rock lined bottom similar to what they've done on the upper coast. they make great structure for fishing.

the Oyster industry would love all commercial harvest to be from leases only. They'd love to outlaw all the public oystering areas and natural reefs.. why, because they could drive the price up more and keep a more consistent lease to them selves. But oysters only tend to grow in the part of the bay that they are currently growing unless you import some other species that can exist in higher salinity.

What the upper coast has been dealing with is that some large oyster companies tried to lease areas that were already natural reefs... it caused an uproar to say the least.

I feel like water quality and fish stocks could benefit by making new reef where there is currently no reef, and while I'd love to see them stop raking the natural reefs. It's really really cool to see an area that is not raked... there are oysters growing several feet off the floor and huge holes and spaces between clumps.. tons of fish habitat... much different from the raked reefs.

I will say currently that raking the reefs do help keep them producing in the current paradigm of that they have been raked and some areas the sediment would cover the substrate if they weren't raked. But If they could reach a point where they didn't I think some areas would die but other areas would grow.

Currently flow is very important and at one time before the ICW there were much greater current velocities. Now that the ICW and channels are cut, the currents aren't strong enough to keep the sediment off the oysters in many areas.. so in that case many areas are still going to need to be raked. Raked oyster are still better than no oyster reef at all.

But hey, that's all I know. I think the main thing is that they build new reef and it's open for all anglers to fish. If the do the box idea they need to limit the density so it doesn't hinder navigation or fishing. Its our waters too.

KingKilla

Here is the point I was trying to make. Issues are already coming up in other areas that pit the Oyster Aquaculture industry against the recreational sector due to safety and access issues when the cages are put in place. This is in South Carolina where they have just started to allow the farming.

https://www.coastalnewstoday.com/post/700-floating-oyster-cages-pit-growing-sc-industry-against-edisto-recreation