Oyster meeting in Galveston on Monday

[fishmaker]

TPWD is having a public meeting tomorrow at 6pm (Monday Aug.7th) in Galveston at the Rosenberg Library to discuss the proposed oyster regulations, which includes permanently closing Christmas Bay to oystering. Anyone going?


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[coachlaw]

I won't be going, but it's ludicrous to consider anything permanent. What happened this past year off Rattlesnake Point had its problems, but a lot of it is actually caused by regulations. Cooning and tonging for oysters should be allowed. Disallowing dredges is a possibility, but the water there is actually too shallow for dredges. Now the ancillary problems caused by irresponsible fishermen were the worst part. Using ATVs to pick up oysters and flattening the marsh, trash everywhere, boats tied up in the canal at the launch, huge trailers taking up all the parking, trash everywhere. I know I said that twice, because that was the worst issue in my mind.

The reefs can take cooning and tonging and be sustainable, even healthier than if left completely to nature. But when the entire fleet descends upon such a small area because every other bay is closed, of course it's going to be bad. Oysters are a passion and hobby of mine. I grow them myself, not for harvest, but for the fun of it. I hold a sport boat oyster license and I tong for oysters in Christmas. I never get more than about 3 sacks a season. Closing a resource permanently is short sighted in my opinion.

[Bayou Uber]

Agree with Coachlaw. The bay should not be closed just because a few knuckle heads screwed up. Punish the screw-ups, not everyone else.

[ByroJaka]

The problem is the large commercial oyster license holders having outside harvesters fishing off their license. One license will have an exorbitant amount of boats from all over the world fishing off the same license. It's hard to police the amount they harvest, especially with the undersized tolerance. Which the current limit is 15% of your catch. I like the move to 5% on that. These outsiders have zero care for our resources & as soon as they are depleted & gone they move on. I went to a meeting a few months back that showed how much under-size harvest they take each day & the numbers are high. The bureaucratic measures you have to take & the amount of time it takes to be able to punish the rule breakers, 10-14 days have passed before you can punish the lawbreaker for one day. Do you realize the amount of under-size oysters get harvested in that amount of time? I can tell you that it's waaay over the 15% allotted harvest. That according to the speaker has been the biggest problem.

In the meeting I was at, people like Sandy were not the problem because of the amount they harvested. This is mainly involving the large commercial guys. I'm not for closing the bay by any means. Policing it takes even more resources that are limited. Education would be the best, maybe even shorten the season by a month. I definitely like lowering the under-size tolerance from 15% to 5%. That at least would make it able to monitor, then fine the hell out of the person selling & buying.

[Curmudgeon]

Well stated Byron!


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