The oyster fishermen can only fish out one spot at a time. They cannot go where
they want to. Right now, they can catch oysters in one triangle shaped area.
From the ship channel around Long Point to the East end of the old jetty's and back
to the mouth of the old river area.
When they were tonging, it took all day to catch 15 sacks at $20. Right now, they
are getting anywhere from $27 to $31 per sack at 15 sacks per boat.
Some are getting greedy since they can now catch 15 sacks in 3 hours. The LDWF
sells the license by the boat. There are some of those oyster fishermen who have
5 or 6 licensed boats. One guy can catch over 100 sacks a day now that they can
use a dredge instead of tonging.
There are a few of them who are griping about those greedy guys, but they are
scared that if they get something done, the state will make them go back to tonging.
Or if they don't, there will be no more oysters in the lake. I just talked to one of
the better commercial fishermen in Cameron and he said if they continue to let anyone
with 5 or 6 boats have 5 or 6 oyster license's, there will be no more oysters left.
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