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PALACIOS It’s an overcast windy day as Ellis Chapman walks down a long pier facing Tres Palacios Bay. With his waders in hand, he wears a hat that says, “The Oyster Farm Company.”
This is a therapeutic escape for Chapman who makes the walk nearly five days a week, Monday through Friday. The pier looks out onto the small bay, which is an extension to the much larger Matagorda Bay located in the northern Texas Coastal Bend.
At the end of his walk, about 100 feet in both directions, are two growing systems used for oysters farming, or oyster aquaculture. From this vantage point, the systems appear to be nothing special and could easily be mistaken for trash or abandoned fishing material. However, a closer look into the shallow waters reveals cages of nearly perfect, fully grown Coastal Bend oysters.