Monday, March 12, 2012

Revivng the Louisiana Oyster Industry

As we near the 2 year mark of the BP Oil Spill, I'm starting a new round of stories about the Gulf Coast for the National Wildlife Federation. We've titled the series "Stories from the Coast".

This latest video is a look into the current state of the oyster industry in Louisiana. As it stands now, the industry as a whole is not operating at pre-spill levels and I wanted to dig in and see what might be the causes. I found that there are a number of factors including hurricanes, some effects of the oil, but mostly the effect of freshwater from the Mississippi River.

The freshwater reached the marshes in heavy doses during the oil spill because river diversion were used in an effort to create a water flow that might push back encroaching oil. There was also a high river in the Spring of 2011 that forced officials to open the Bonnet Carre spillway to prevent flooding in New Orleans and the surrounding areas. These influxes of freshwater upset the delicate balance of salinity required to maintain a healthy oyster population.

As I went through the filming process of this story I was treated to a sack of oyster from P&J Oyster Co. I shucked the oysters and used them in my Mom's oyster stuffing recipe. Sometimes this job has some major perks.

What I took away most from this story is the idea of farming oysters that is featured near the end of the video. This concept seemed like a very legitimate way of raising and harvesting oysters. It may be some time before the fishermen start using this method, but as we continue to re-engineer our coast for the good of everyone, it's going to take innovative approaches to helping our fisherman continue to work for themselves and I think that this method will play a major role in helping the oyster fishermen.

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