Calcasieu Lake Destruction
 

It looks like Nov. 1st oyster season is set to open. Below is a map of the area open to dredge. Take notice of how much of the south end of the lake is open.

I thought CCA and specifically the Lake Charles chapter was making a huge push to stop this?

Pahahahahahahahaha

Thank goodness they closed Joe's Cove!

Ouch! That looks horrible

Casey, you know damn well CCA has nothing to do with conservation.

Awesome...

Good Job WL&F

Anyone who spends any time in WC, in the winter, knows how hard these guys are going to hit he south end of the lake. Big time bummer.

Yeah they gonna rape it!

Curious, what is the difference between this year's harvest grounds and last year?

51,000 sacks on one reef
 

CALCASIEU PARISH, LA (KPLC) - The Louisiana Wildlife & Fisheries Commission has set oyster season in Calcasieu Lake to begin a half-hour before sunrise on Nov. 1.
Still, those who depend on oyster fishing say they almost didn't get a season this year.
In Cameron Parish, LNG is king and so is oyster fishing, at least to those who have spent their lives here.
"I've already had people calling for oysters wanting to know when the season's going to open."
Yet, those who depend on oysters for their livelihood say they came dangerously close to no season this year, which buyer Kay Picou says might have caused her to close shop.
"If they had not opened this oyster season I feel like my business would have had to shut down," Picou said. "Without the oysters, I can't make a living just on shrimp."
Though shrimp and crabs are a big part of the seafood business, those like Leo Dyson say without oysters you can't make it.
"So, they work shrimping from April to November and then they start oystering and they have a year-round fishery where everyone makes a living," Dyson said.
Dyson fished for decades and is now a buyer. He says fishermen hired their own biologist this year.
"We went with their biologist and we went with the one we hired and both times we found oysters," Dyson said. "One reef had 51,000 sacks on it."
West Cameron Port Director Clair Marceaux says oysters are part of the economy and the culture.
"If you take away oystering, that's one more component of our culture that once it disappears I don't know how we'll get it back," she said. "Fisheries is a way for us to make a living and feed our families. The money that comes from oystering does things like pay mortgages and high insurance premiums and college tuition."
So, for now, there is an upcoming oyster season for Calcasieu Lake - one fishermen worry they may have to fight for year after year.
Still, a spokesman for Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries says they believe the resource is in danger of being depleted and issued the following statement.
?Our monitoring program indicates a long-term decline in the oyster population in Calcasieu Lake. We are very aware of the importance of this harvest to the community and seriously evaluated all our options prior to making our recommendation. The Commission considers both biological and social information in establishing harvest regulations. If oyster resources remain low, the Department will probably continue to recommend low or no harvest. The Commission will consider that information along with the input from the users of the resource when setting regulations. We all hope that the resource will recover so we can recommend more harvest from this area.?
For more on the oyster season from Louisiana Wildlife & Fisheries, click HERE.
Copyright 2016 KPLC . All rights reserved.

Harvesting oysters isn't the problem. The problem is the method in which oyster fishermen are allowed to harvest. If they'd ban the use of dredges and enforced a tonging only policy, the reefs would not be completely destroyed. Tonging is also more difficult and many fishermen don't seem to want to put in more work to protect the habitat.

I remember in the late 90's when I first started fishing Big Lake. All there were was oyster fishermen with tongs. It was a sight to see. All those skiffs with a couple guys working all day and pilling up oysters in those boats.

Never had oyster problems till dredging

This is 110% on wildlife and fishies

And there ain't a reef in big lake with 51,000 sacks of oysters unless they were in turners

I will bet serious money there is not one south of that fire line

Another note , last time they let them rape the east bank it has never been the same

I have many family members who are oyster men If dredging was so bad and hurt the fisheries so bad why are there 10 times more guides now than there was back when it was tong only? Fisheries haven't changed a bit

And why is north end of the lake closed by health and hospitals? Should we not be eating fish from up there?

25,268 sacks of Oysters came out of West Cove last year.

You clearly do not fish. The change in the lake since dredging has been allowed is so drastic that it is like fishing a totally different body of water. It is sad that a natural resource has to be utterly destroyed before anyone pays attention.

Wholesale deforestation from harvesting virgin timber was once a thing too and was probably much more of an economic boon than oystering in its heyday. But management and processes have to change to allow for continued resources in the long run. Unfortunately it seems like many who make their living off of it don't want to adapt or find other means to ensure that.


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Everyone needs to let your voice be heard over this issue...
Our LA state biologist were on our side with this issue and said oystering needed to be closed down.

Politics over rode the WLF Biologist on this one and allowed this to happen


Mr. Yakupzack can be contacted at:
P. O. Box 1467
Lake Charles, LA 70602
Phone: 337-494-0694
Fax: 337-494-0697
E-mail: bartyak@graylawfirm.com

Only way to fight this is to let your voice on the issue be heard.
here is my 1st letter as of today

Same thing. We plant trees to harvest and now they plant oysters to harvest. Doesn't matter if tong or by dredge the same amount of oysters are going to be harvested. It's just advanced technology. Bet all you don't push pole your pirogues to go fishing. You have trolling motors and power poles.

I don't fish for trout. They are wormy and don't put up any fight. They are good for kids to catch. I catch the real Steak of the Lake



And CCA don't want none of the oyster mafia. LDWF either.


I bet all y'all eat oysters. Where do you think they come from?


This faux outrage is why Hillary will be elected

wrong so stop trolling.....


tong = less boats fishing due to the nature of the work

dredging destroys reefs unlike tongs you have to reseed

Everytime you go fishing take a dump in the water on the south end of the lake, maybe DHH will shut it down too.

Here is the actual study. Somehow the comerical interest were able to talk around to get the season open.

http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/sites/d...on_to_otf3.pdf

I am anticipating an amended study will be released soon showing how the numbers were "adjusted" upward to justify the opening.

This statement ignores the plain fact that the ecosystem benefits of oyster reefs are not only related to the biomass of living oysters, but are also strongly related to the physical structure of oyster reefs providing valuable habitat for benthic invertebrates.

Studies have shown that tonging for oysters preserves the reef structure and the habitat benefits nearly as well as not harvesting the oysters at all. In contrast dredging destroys the reefs and results in most of the calcified material getting buried in the muck and mud resulting in a much less dynamic benthic ecosystem. Further, all the silt stirred up negatively impacts light penetration and photosynthesis.

It is much better to think about the ecosystem in terms of the food web. Everything about harvesting with tongs is better for the food web than dredging.

there is nothing wrong with the ecosystem as it is. The fisheries is obviously not hurting. The number of guides on the lake has increased exponentially over last few years so clearly the fish aren't hurting. People want oysters, they will get oysters. LDWF will continue to seed them in and they will all be harvested. Just like trees, rice, and sugarcane. You plant them and harvest them all and then repeat

Calcasieu got lucky that Omega Protein moved.

Keep raping the oysters, the system will suffer. It did suffer from 2010-2012, but came back in 2013 when the pogey plant closed.

As has been mentioned, there is a more sustainable approach (tongs) to harvesting oysters that is better for the ecosystem.

No one us saying don't harvest oysters. The point is to do it in a sustainable way with minimal impact on the ecosystem.

So who's planting and reseeding oysters on big lake ?

He can't seem to to grasp to part of the study that shows excessive harvesting to seed ratio. That means that soon there will be none to harvest.

And next, all of the lake will be open, good bye turners bay.

Cold water oysters are better than gulf oysters anyways. I like to eat oysters from the NE waters

I agree. I am not a huge fan of oysters, but if I do eat them they're at vic and anthonys and are flown in from NE.

So who will they blame when the oysters are gone. Most of the ones that wlf seeds back into the lake can't survive if they don't have the needed reef surface to attach to.

Your breath must stink from that much bull**** coming out of your mouth.

You have no clue what you are talking about. So, just do everyone a favor, go brush your teeth, AND SHUT UP!!

The fact that you cite increases in guides as a reason for the ecoystem being fine is just asinine. How many of those guides limit out on every trip? How many are catching majority undersized trout, or 12" trout? How has the average catch of other guides been affected, if at all?

So if the ecosystem is fine, why did LDWF want to close the season? What, is there some giant conspiracy against the oystermen?

Are you being serious or just adding to the troll factor? I'm legitimately confused.


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Not sure what there is to be confused about.

Okie doke.


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Smalls is right. Judging the health of an ecosystem by the number of guide boats is bad science, so bad that it stinks.

There are some things about the ecosystem that show ongoing strength, but there was some luck involved with the closure of the pogey plant and huge increase in the menhaden numbers a couple years after the oyster numbers plummeted.

But in the long run, protecting the habitat is a better plan than raping it. Galveston Bay, Chesapeake Bay, and lots of estuaries along the Gulf coast and eastern seaboard dwindled to a fraction of the fisheries they once sustained after the destruction of the oysters in those systems. Oysters provide a number of very important ecosystem services which improve the habitat of the whole estuary and beyond.

Filtering of large volumes of water to improve light penetration is one of the most important ecosystem services provided by oysters. Why is light penetration so important? In a word: photosynthesis. The whole food chain depends on primary production through photosynthesis, then the biomass is available to the larger food web. No light penetration -> no photosynthesis -> no food web.

Colleagues and I have correlated the oyster stocks not only to primary production in Calcasieu Estuary itself, but also in a 100 km by 100 km square area in the near shore Gulf of Mexico adjacent to the estuary. It turns out that the oysters in Calcasieu are filtering the water, increasing light penetration, and enhancing primary production in that large region of Gulf water also. Muddier water -> less light penetration -> lower biomass. It's that simple.

The attached map shows the correlations between primary production in near shore Gulf waters and Calcasieu oyster stocks in the 9 years following Rita. This is convincing evidence that harming the oyster stocks in Calcasieu will harm not only the ecosystem in the estuary, but also in a large region of nearshore Gulf waters.

Keep raping the system, everyone is going to get screwed.

Don't know why y'all celebrate the pogey plant shutting down locals lost their jobs just like they would if you ban oyster dredging. Didn't know this site was full of Hillary supporters. The lake is fine. The increase in guides shows that there are plenty of fish to be had for everyone

Make the lake great again

I don't need an education on the oyster issue, I'm more than informed on the matter. How are you guys not getting that he's trolling you guys...it's only every single post from the guy lol.

I think sometimes a few folks on here want to interject their thoughts on matters so badly that they forget to use common sense or context clues...hell, maybe even read between the lines. It started off as entertaining to me at first, but now it's just sad that you don't see it. For me it basically discredits anything else you post on here.


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Can anyone describe or add a link to how or if the oysters are being reseeded or restocked? Has farming oysters in the big lake area ever been done? I know this practice is done on the east side of LA.

There is zero reseeding or restocking of oyster beds on big lake


The WLF and placed 3 areas in the lake to try and grow oyster beds.

1 in WC
1 South Bank
1 Com Pt

Besting trolling he's ever done then, or the worst, depending on how you look at it. This moron is normally babbling about CCA and a silver lab.

Maybe it's you not recognizing when he is trolling or not.

Sister Lake and Lake Mechant are farmed for oysters year round. No one has a problem catching specks there.

Fact Check:

Sister Lake is closed this season, and the Lake Mechant season did not begin until Sept.

The following areas shall remain closed for the 2016/2017 oyster season:

? The area east of the Mississippi River and south of a line extending east from the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet at latitude 29 degrees 42 minutes 56.74 seconds N latitude, excluding the American Bay area listed above

? The Bay Gardene and Sister Lake Public Oyster Seed Reservations

The following opening dates were set for the upcoming oyster season (see maps above):


? Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - Bay Junop Public Oyster Seed Reservation, Lake Mechant Public Oyster Seed Grounds, and Vermilion/East and West Cote Blanche/Atchafalaya Bay Public Oyster Seed Grounds will open at one-half hour before sunrise. No harvest of oysters for market sales is allowed on any public oyster area prior to the second Monday in October. Therefore, any and all vessels harvesting on the open public oyster seed grounds between September 7, 2016 and October 9, 2016, both dates inclusive, shall be harvesting seed oysters for bedding purposes only and shall not have sacks or other containers typically used to hold oysters on board the harvest vessel.

You might check the regs before posting such ignorant statements.

See: http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/fishing...oyster-seasons

I said Farmed, not harvested. There's a difference. Also, that's public beds. They have private leased beds that get worked over too.