They are supposed to throw back any undersized oysters back into the same place
they caught them. So the ones that were just undersized last year may be legal
this year.
Mechanical dredges will kill the oysters in Big Lake in the next couple years. It killed
it before, but the people who are running this for the state are too young to
remember it. The older guys who remember it already retired.
Last time they wiped out the oysters, they had to shut down oyster fishing for a few
years so they could come back.
If they stuck with tonging we would never run out of oysters. There were less oyster
fishermen back then. But make it easy to make $300/day before noon and you will
have every rinky dink boat licensed and pulling a dredge.
Big Lake is the #2 oyster producing area in La. Pretty soon it will start falling off, then
the oyster fishermen will cry that it is something or someone elses fault.
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