Quote:
Originally Posted by Gottogo49
Cool, can you also do a study on the effect on closing off the marsh on the East side of the lake. I know it was done to protect the marsh but wouldn't wind levees also help. How does Sabine Lake compare to Calcasieu in terms of oystering and marsh blocking/erosion? Not trying to high jack your thread or disapprove of your study at all. Just some quick thoughts. Thanks for all the good work on your paper.
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Sabine has a lot more oysters, since TX hasn't allowed oystering in a long time, and LA has not been open to oystering in several years either. I'd have to double check, but if I recall correctly, I don't think Sabine has near the "marsh blocking" infrastructure (weirs and levees) as Calcasieu.
Studying the hypothetical negative impacts of the weirs on the fish in Calcasieu is a tough experiment. One could measure the fatness of the redfish on the lake side and on the marsh side, say on the same two days of the month for a number of months. But even if one found that the redfish on the marsh side were, say 15% fatter (on average), one could conclude that there is more food per redfish on the marsh side, but estimating how much fatter the fish on the lake side would be if the food in the marsh were available to all the fish in the lake would be challenging.
Everyone seems to agree that closing the weirs is giving up some short term productivity in the lake to retain the long term productivity of the marsh, which can then be accessed from the lake when the tides and salinity allow the weirs to be open.
If I really wanted to access the productivity of the marsh behind the weirs, I think I'd look into the legality of carrying a kayak or canoe back there: boat to weir, carry canoe over to marsh side, catch the fish. On the other hand, I don't think I'd work that hard. Calcasieu is at some risk of decline if the marsh and the oysters are not taken care of, but it is still one of the top ten fishing places on earth.