Coastal & Marine Resources Texas A&M AgriLife Matagorda County
Oyster season is coming to an end, but have you wondered about the closures happening during the season?
There is quite a bit of work done during oyster seasons to ensure oysters are being harvested from clean waters and to protect the resource.
Let’s take a glance at what a couple of our state agencies are doing behind-the-scenes of oyster season.
For one reason or another, this oyster season has been a tough one.
Maybe you have been hearing about the struggle of the season from folks in the industry - whether they are on the harvest-side or the market-side.
Oyster harvest areas can be closed during the season for a number of reasons:
- The Department of State Health Services’ Seafood and Aquatic Life Operations Branch monitors the waters in these oyster harvest areas for fecal coliforms and harmful algal blooms.
- If an unsafe level is - and each harvest area has its own threshold - the department will close the area because it means the oysters there could potentially make people sick.
- The harvest areas can be classified as approved, closed, conditionally approved, prohibited, and restricted.
If you are curious about your local harvest areas and their classification, you can Google “DSHS shellfish harvesting areas” and you will be brought to a page by the department and find a list of bay areas to click and see the harvest area maps.
These are updated at the start of each season.
Note: all oysters in Texas waters can only be harvested from approved or conditionally approved areas.
Major rainfall events can immediately, without sampling, close an area down if rainfall levels exceed specific criterion designated by the department.
Why is that you might ask? Simply put, heavy rainfall events cause flooding and runoff from nearby urban, industrial, and agricultural areas into creeks, rivers and ultimately end up in our Texas bays where our oysters filter all the water pollution and contaminants from the runoff.
All this to say, one reason a harvest area can be closed is due to health and to protect the consumers (us!)
If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact DSHS.
The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department’s Coastal Fisheries Division monitors oysters year-round and they are looking at the actual resource.
A certain percentage of their oyster sampling must be made up of legal-size oysters (3 inches) and if the quota is not met, the harvest area will be closed.
No sense in harvesting in an area with undersized or juvenile oysters, right?
These temporary closures are done to protect the resource and allow oysters to grow and reproduce.
These health and resource-based closures occur during the season from November to April and once April ends, so does the season.
As the waters start to warm up, the bacteria Vibrio vulnificus starts to reproduce more rapidly; this is the bacteria you likely hear a lot about when you talk about raw shellfish consumption or when you get a cut while in the water.
For folks with weakened immune systems, V. vulnificus poses quite the threat.
Oysters during the summer months also start to spawn and the meat turns mushy, which is not very appetizing to say the least.
So to keep people from getting sick and to allow oysters to create new generations, the season is closed from May-October.
So, as we bid adieu to this oyster season, let us remember the importance of in-season closures; they might get a little confusing or seem nit-picky, but closures are done with the best of intentions - to keep people healthy and to keep the oyster population healthy.
Oysters are the filters of our waters and provide valuable habitat for many species, as well as act as barriers from erosion.
If we do not work to protect the species, it could prove to have an adverse effect on the industry, the water, marine habitats, and more.
Let’s be mindful to not take the mighty oyster for granted and to be thankful for the agencies at work to keep everyone (people & oysters) healthy.