[meaux fishing]

Originally Posted by "W"

David Deere of the Calcasieu Lake Oyster Task Force believes there may not be an oyster season next year because of the recent economic downturn.
“The economy was so bad a lot of people couldn’t find jobs, so they went to oystering,” Deere said. “As a result, the lake got fished pretty hard, and I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that there won’t be a next year.”
In the 2009-2010 season, there were more than 140 boats working in the public oyster beds in Calcasieu Lake. In the previous year, there were fewer than 80 boats. In the 2005-2006 season, there were fewer than 40. “It really hurts our economy here because a lot of these fisherman shrimp during the summertime and depend on oystering in the winter for their livelihood,” Deere said.
The Calcasieu Lake Oyster Task Force is trying to get the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to open restricted areas of the lake. “Our problem is that we’re
not like lease beds, where they can go get seed oysters,” Deere said. “We have to manage our resource to where we can work the next year.”
Wildlife and Fisheries biologist Mike Harbison, who supervises the Marine Fish eries Division in the Calcasieu area, said the agency is considering such
openings.
“That’s being worked on at this time,” Harbison said. “A lot of it falls in (the Department of Health and Hospital’s) hands.” That agency is responsible
for testing the water for pollutants.Harbison said that water samples taken in the area have come back clean, and he believes the closed areas of Calcasieu Lake will probably open at the start of next oyster season. According to LSU AgCenter representative Kevin Savoie, Calcasieu Lake reefs yielded 137,000 sacks of oysters in the 2009-10 season, with the price averaging $25 a sack and a reported high of $32 a sack. This was based on a 15-sack limit per day per fisherman. Savoie said this year’s daily sack limit has been lowered to 10. “We reduced harvest by about a third, and the fishermen asked for that,” Savoie
said. “They knew that they hit them (oyster beds) really hard last year, and they wanted to be a little bit conservative this year. And Wildlife and Fisheries agreed.”
Oyster season opened Oct. 15, and ends the last day of April.

That part doesnt sound good