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.
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