Oyster Bill
 

A bill has been pre-filed in the Louisiana Senate to eliminate dredging for oysters in Calcasieu Lake in favor of tonging. The bill was filed by Sen. Blade Morrish.
The oyster resource was hit hard this season because of the influx of fishermen from other areas of the state. Oyster beds were killed in Lake Pontchartrainwhen fresh water was diverted through the lake to prevent fouling by the BP oil spill.
The poor economy and the high demand for Louisiana oysters brought many new fishermen into the industry and put heavy pressure on the Calcasieu Lake oyster beds.
The season was cut short, and the area may not even open next year.


Sammy Faulk opposes this bill. He thinks dredges can still be used, but use mechanical winches instead of electric winches.
Please remember Sammy Faulks opposition on this issue when or if you are looking for a guide.
He publically opposed this bill in a Cameron Parish Police Jury meeting.

Faulk is a complete moron who is making profits on kickbacks......... I see him every now and then at Heberts...I want to have him explain the good dredging is doing to the lake

Never had much respect for the man, but lost what little I had for him the last couple times I heard him speak.
Big Lake was a great place to catch fish and oysters before the dredges. Why screw that up?

Faulk was very instrumental in getting dredging started back in 2003. It was all about the commercial selling of big lake oysters. Claimed they couldn't sell them because they were deformed sizes with muscles growing on the outside killing the oysters. Dredging only helped to create "marketable" oysters and easier work for the oystermen.

There was no issue with East Side Oysters. Just West Cove Oysters.
Oyster fishermen called them "lizard tongues" cause they were long and skinny.
They had less market value then the big plump fat East Side Oysters.
If they wanted to get rid of the Hook Mussels and thin out the "lizard tongues",
they should have opend dredging on the West Cove only, or the LDWF could
have drug something the break up the Hook Mussels.
Studies showed the West Cove had too many Oysters, but no one wanted them.
Opening that side only after the BP spill would have made them marketable. People
want La. Oysters and this is the only place left with them after the fresh water killed
off the Eastern La. Oysters on the other side of the state.
Making it easy to make $300/day fishing oysters is not the way to do it. There are
several guys who have 3 to 5 boats fishing Oysters. Should be only 1 license per
person, not per boat. That is another big gripe of mine. They will never fix that issue.

If this bill is passes which Im praying it will....Lake will go from 200 Oyster boats to 25 in one year

Dredging is not that bad, if they only let the ones brave and tough enough to tong, be able to dredge.

Dredging may be good, but not when the number of boats triples.

If you are too lazy to tong oysters, you shouldn't be allowed to have 5 licenses.
Or even have 1 license.

Dredging a limit and tonging a limit is the same, except dredging is faster. They
still end up with the same number of sacks at the end of the day.

No one is going to have 5 boats with 5 licenses if they were tonging. They would
have only 1 license cause it is tough work.

Oystering should be easily manageable, but it takes too long for the gov't officials
to make decisions. ONLY after a resource is wiped out, do they do anything.

Same with the Pintail population. Limit of 10 per day, till they are wiped out. Only
then did they do something. They all say they have to do a study first.

Fishermen and hunters see the decline in their favorite resources. The
ones regulating it don't.

I know some Oyster fishermen who made the same complaints. They hate
seeing outsiders or other lazy asses start fishing Oysters, only after the
LDWF started allowing dredging.

The ones who toughed it out tonging will hurt now. The others will just hold
out their hand so the gov't can give them money for killing off their Oysters.
The ones they would harvest when there was only tonging allowed.

Ray, what are you doing May 19th? You would be a great expert witness infront of the Department of Natural Resources Committee in Baton Rouge.

Working till May 24th.
I am not an expert on anything.
Just passing on info.

???????????? Jordan