Quote:
Originally Posted by BloodKnot
MG,
I am a pro-weir big lake guy. So I appreciate your thoughts and research.
Do you or anyone have an knowledge if the weirs affect the oysters any? Not sure if weirs being closed for a long period hurt the oysters, which would indirectly negatively affect the fish.
Just wanted to get your 2 cents on that.
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That's a great idea worthy of consideration.
Other than overharvesting and dredging, the biggest enemies of oysters are the oyster drill, the black drum, and overly low and high salinities.
Is it possible that opening or closing the weirs somehow impacts (for better or worse) one of the key predators so that predation pressure is increased or decreased? Sure, but this is likely a second order effect that may vary depending on the time scale. For example, suppose opening the weirs pulls a lot of the drum off of the oyster reefs to feed at the weirs, thus reducing predation pressure. This is good in the short term, but could also have the effect of increasing the drum population in the longer term.
One big issue for the oysters at the S end of Big Lake (east side) is the additional stress from high salinities. The weirs may have a small effect here, but in the long run, improvement requires smaller coupling between the lake and the Gulf.