Now as oystermen and state biologists talk about how to rebuild the reefs, there is a lot of discussion about turning to aquaculture techniques used in other parts of the country.
The first order of business falls into the big picture category. Ever since a 2003 billion-dollar award to oyster fishermen who filed suit against the state for destroying their beds with freshwater diversions was overturned and a hold-harmless clause was adopted by the state Legislature to allow coastal restoration projects to proceed without the threat of lawsuits, oyster fishermen and their beds on leases that had crept farther and farther inland, into the state’s bays, have been at risk.
Currently, the state is planning to implement as many as 14 new freshwater diversions off the Mississippi River to restore wetlands. That means many oyster beds will be in even more jeopardy from freshwater due to coastal restoration programs than they were during the spill.
With as much as $15 million in BP money promised to rebuild oyster reefs, state biologists and oyster fishers are looking at several different approaches at restoring the oyster industry. The first, outlined by Wildlife and Fisheries biologist Patrick Banks, in the Houma Courier, is simply to rebuild existing reefs with crushed oyster shell and limestone, then seeding the reef with oyster sprats, which will take three years to reach market size.
Surprisingly, the response from oyster fishermen, who currently hold state leases on water bottoms for as little as $2 an acre, is to turn their back on tradition, and look to other techniques, which involve suspending oysters in bags and baskets or on poles and ropes, all of which can be moved to marine environments where the salinity level is favorable to growing oysters. Suspending the oysters higher in the water column also prevents predators, like snails, from drilling into the shells, keeps sediment from smothering the bivalves, and provides a better, cleaner water quality.
I saw the suspension technique myself, on a trip to New Brunswick several years ago. For miles along the sandy shores of the Acadian Peninsula, oysters were grown in suspended baskets easily harvested when they had reached market size. I spent the week eating those oysters, small, sharply briny with a sweet finish, crisp and delicious, at nearly every meal. I can attest to their excellence. The downside, of course, is it’s expensive because the techniques are more labor intensive than letting mother nature grow oysters on the bottom of the Gulf.
But it’s encouraging to hear the spokesmen for Louisiana’s oyster industry embracing the future rather than digging in to preserve the ways of the past. “We can look beyond tradition and change who we are,” Mike Voisin, an oyster fisherman and member of the state’s Oyster Advisory Committee told the Houma Courier. “We will always be a bottom-culture industry, but we also need to begin looking at the way things are done in other states and countries.”
Our culture, as well as our seafood industry depends on keeping an open mind as we attempt to solve the enormity of our coastal problems. For these most traditional of fishermen to offer solutions rather than resistance is a bright light in a complex environmental situation.
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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