Oyster Protest!

[Ray]

Originally Posted by Capt.B

Read my post again friend....I said nothing abt you or any commercial fisherman making a living on the lake....you can still make a living tonging. My point is that entire reef structure's are being wiped out completely and flattened by dredges...and hauled off!! Thats where I make my living on reefs 90% of the time....Every oyster boat will be in west cove this year....you'll have nothing for next year....reef in the cove is a thing of the past....

Entire reef structure is not being wiped out. Just the oysters. There is still hard bottoms on the East side with a few Oysters. But nothing on the hard bottom, nothing for the shrimp to hide in.
Thing is, everyone knew the Oysters were gone from the East side last year and they still opened that side up.
Other thing, I don't care what anyone says, dredging wiped out the Oysters. Tonging is not easy, dredging is a lot easier. Easier work, more people doing it. If dredging wasn't easy, there wouldn't be no more boats than if there was tonging.

["W"]

IF nothing changes...This will be the last year for a long time.....By the end of this Season WL&F will know there is nothing left to harvest and have to close the season down for a 7 year minimum if not 10years

[evis102]

You should see what a reef looks like on side scan sonar after dredging. I just wish I had the forethought to save my sonar runs.

[Ray]

It will take 3 to 5 years for the Oysters to get to legal size after they close the season. That is just legal. Not the ones the market buyers like.
West Cove Oysters were not as marketable as East Side Oysters. East Side were more plump.
West Cove Oysters are actually overpopulated. They should have let them hit those first and save the East side.

[Ray]

Originally Posted by "W"

IF nothing changes...This will be the last year for a long time.....By the end of this Season WL&F will know there is nothing left to harvest and have to close the season down for a 7 year minimum if not 10years

Last time they closed it due to dredges was from 1967 to 1975.
During that time, there were many caught dredging at night and
during bad weather, when they thought the LDWF was not looking.
That's how long it will take to get the reefs healthy enough to
harvest again for marketable Oysters.

[Ray]

Here is the problem.
It not the dredges, it is the number of them.

["W"]

They had more than 145 boats last year......I counted 69 on Basket one day..and they had about 40 on LSU south and another 50 in front of old jetties

[Ray]

Most landings in one day for 2010 was 190 in January.
Those numbers in the graph were average boats per day for the 2009/2010 season.

[Ray]

And those numbers were for the dredging only. Not tonging.
Dredging started in 2004.