LDWF meeting to talk about Big Lake Oysters

[jchief]

Originally Posted by MathGeek

It looks like LDWF is recommending to the Oyster Task Force and the LWF Commission that oystering be open in West Cove next season starting Oct 27, 2014 (including dredging), but limited to 10 sacks of oysters per vessel per day. That's quite a bit lower than the 25 sacks per day set by the legislature for the maximum in Calcasieu Lake and the 50 sacks per day limit in the other open areas of the state. Pretty sure that is what it was last year also.

Short of a complete ban on dredging, this may be about the best outcome that could be hoped for at the present time. Depending on the market price, spending the fuel and time to go out for 10 sacks of oysters may not be attractive enough to many harvesters.

I'm re-reading a paper right now that discusses all the valuable ecosystem services that are lost when valuable oyster reef habitat is destroyed. http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/marinebio..._grabowski.pdf

I think this is a great way to communicate our concerns to other anglers, to state policy makers, and to CCA-types in terms of maintaining habitat and valuable ecosystem services.

.