Louisiana oyster farmers can apply for grants designed to expand the use of new harvesting methods.
Louisiana Sea Grant has received $3 million for the program. The money comes from the state Wildlife and Fisheries Department and the Louisiana Coastal Restoration and Protection Program.
For more than a decade, Sea Grant has experimented with growing oysters in floating cages or cages placed on waterbottoms and attached to pylons in a project at Grand Isle. The method allows the cages to be raised and lowered to protect oysters from predators, fouling and the burial effects of disasters like hurricanes.
“Alternative oyster culture was identified as an important adaptation strategy by people in the oyster industry during Louisiana’s Seafood Future workshops and surveys, Thomas Hymel, an extension agent with Sea Grant and the LSU AgCenter, said in a news release. This grant is in direct response to [an] industry suggestion, offering direct economic development assistance.
un-kissed lines frame Terry Shelley’s face like high tide stains a fishing dock. Today, those creases seem deepened by anger, but it’s the tone of his voice that gives it away.
Mr. Shelley has spent his entire working life as a commercial fisherman. Before he was a full-time oyster farmer and harvester, he spent the first part of his career harvesting shrimp and reef fish. He’s seen a lot, but not a pileup of challenges like now.
Back in September, Hurricane Zeta rumbled over small-town Port Sulphur, Louisiana, where the family’s oyster farm and processing center are based. The Shelleys lost half their cages, and they only managed to retrieve about half of that. Already by then, the COVID-19 pandemic had temporarily halted the supply lines Shelley Farms uses to sell its oysters.
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