Potential Closure of Wild Life Resourse

[Bayou Uber]

Due to the irresponsible actions of a few (and greenie-weenie hyper-sensitivity), the days of taking of Oysters from Christmas Bay may be gone for ever.

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Christmas-Bay-oyster-closure-sought-11077192.php#photo-12730747

[WestEndAngler]

I really wish they'd give us the full article. I had to go grab the paper from the office.

[Bayou Uber]

Guess I was lucky, I was able to read the whole thing.

[Root Canal]

Was this a result of the Commercial Oyster boats hitting Arcadia Reef recently
when the tides were extremely low and had the reefs exposed ??

[Jerkyourcroaker]

According to the article, the oysterman have been burning the sea grass, using atvs to access the bay and tearing up shore grass and marsh in order to load oyster sacks and storing oyster sacks on bird rookeries. The petition to close Christmas Bay to oystering was endorsed by the Galveston Bay Foundation and six of the largest local oyster companies including the Hillmans.

I did some reading on this issue today and I support the closure.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[plugger]

From what has been posted I too endorse the closing . I thought it was already closed commercially . I have seen individual boaters out hammering away at a oyster clod for personal use. I thought I would like to do that as wel but wasn't sure if they were safe to eat.

[walkinwader]

If they are damaging the resource why would you not support it. Sounds like enough damage to the area has been done already .

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

[JT]

Too many people "cooning" for oysters to sell. When I heard that's where they were getting them the last couple months and in that manner, I figured it would only be a matter of time before it was closed.
They were very nice oysters tho. Best I've seen in years.

[Bayou Uber]

The problem I see is if they close Christmas Bay, it will be closed to the harvesting of oysters for everyone. That means that those of us that want to get our own for personal consumption will be looking hard to find a place since Bastrop is also closed. Weird thing is that according to the article, TPWD was the one that told the commercial guys to go there since it wasn't being utilized.

[Jerkyourcroaker]

One of the challenges is that TPWD hasn't managed fisheries or oysters very well just as you rightly describe.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk