Oyster harvesters hit hard as Texas closes reefs for conservation and public health

Editor's note, Dec. 21, 2022: An earlier version of this article included material, without proper attribution, from an article by Houston Public Media. The article has been updated and The Texas Tribune regrets the error.

Alex Gutierrez, an oyster harvester, conducts routine maintenance on his boat Thursday in San Leon. Gutierrez said he and everyone else who depends on Gulf of Mexico oysters for their livelihood are going to suffer major economic losses after the state shut down several harvesting areas. (Credit: Callaghan O'Hare for The Texas Tribune)

Alex Gutierrez is heartbroken. The 54-year-old oyster harvester from Galveston hasn’t been fishing in days, after a recent order by the Texas Department of State Health Services to recall oysters harvested from a certain area left him without work.

The state shut down the affected oyster reefs, and Gutierrez said it’s one more blow to oyster harvesters trying to keep their industry alive.

“La pérdida va a ser enorme,” Gutierrez said in Spanish — the loss will be enormous.

Gutierrez, who owns five boats and employs over a dozen people, said he and everyone else who depends on Gulf of Mexico oysters for their livelihood are going to suffer major economic losses. He said that many harvesters might be forced to sell their oyster fishing licenses to make ends meet.

Gutierrez has worked in the industry for over three decades. He is the captain of the boat El Santana and owns four other boats. He said that on a good day, each boat can harvest 30 sacks of oysters and collectively earn about $7,500. But since the Dec. 9 recall announcement, triggered by dozens of reports of illnesses and one hospitalization among people who ate Galveston Bay oysters, he hasn’t harvested a single oyster.

“If you saw the long faces, the frustration, the helplessness, the resentment that people feel for everything that is happening, that is what worries me,” he said.

The recall applies to shelled and shucked oysters harvested in a specific area in Galveston Bay from Nov. 17 through Dec. 7.

DSHS said in an email that it is investigating reports of about 57 suspected cases in Texas and more than 200 suspected cases across Texas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee of people who reported getting sick after consuming oysters from the area. Some of those people tested positive for norovirus, a very contagious virus that causes vomiting and diarrhea, DSHS spokesperson Chris Van Deusen said in an email.

The agency said the harvest area will remain closed until Dec. 30 while state epidemiologists work with local health departments to investigate the cases. The health department is asking people experiencing any symptoms after eating oysters to contact their health care provider and note their exposure to oysters.

An employee of Misho’s Oyster Company uses a backhoe loader to move oyster shells Thursday in San Leon. (Credit: Callaghan O'Hare for The Texas Tribune)

A discarded glove sits amongst oyster shells at Misho's Oyster Company after the Texas Department of State Health Services ordered a recall for oysters harvested in the area of southeastern Galveston Bay in San Leon, Texas, U.S., on Thursday, December 15, 2022. (Credit: Callaghan O'Hare for The Texas Tribune)

Sacks used to hold oysters are dried after being taken off of boats at US Sea Products, a wholesale oyster company, following the Texas Department of State Health Services’ recall on oysters harvested in the area of southeastern Galveston Bay in Texas City, Texas, U.S., on Thursday, December 15, 2022. (Credit: Callaghan O'Hare for The Texas Tribune)

Gutierrez said oyster harvesters can’t wait for regulators to reopen reefs. Many are like him, Latino and strapped for cash to pay their bills. He said the closures are setting them up to fail, and news of the oyster recall “left us with zero income right now.”

About 45% of the nation's $253.2 million oyster harvest comes from the Gulf Coast region, which includes Galveston Bay, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Texas A&M at Galveston's Seafood Safety lab estimates that Texas' oyster industry contributes an estimated $50 million to the state's economy.

Texas’ oyster season, which runs Nov. 1 through April 30, had a difficult start after state officials closed a majority of the state’s public oyster reefs for harvesting, a move they said is necessary to sustain the industry. A 2018 report by the Nature Conservancy estimated that 50-85% of the original oyster reefs on the Gulf Coast have disappeared.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department launched a system in 2015 that sends state biologists to take oyster samples from the reefs; if oysters are smaller than 3 inches and the number of oysters caught per hour on site falls below 400, then the agency closes it for the season.

“You can’t let recreational, commercial anglers just go out into the resource, which is like our bays and estuaries, and take however many and whatever they want,” said Julie Hagen, a social media specialist for Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Coastal Fisheries Field Offices. “That will destroy the populations and that'll ruin the ecosystem, if there's no rules around it.”

Gutierrez and other oyster harvesters disagree with the state's approach and contend that closing some reefs acts to concentrate fishing boats into the remaining open areas, which then leads to overharvesting those reefs.

“I know from my experience as oystermen when we work too much on an area … that pressure on those oysters of us constantly beating on them and 200-plus boats in a small area is what causes … oysters to become weak,” said Johny Jurisich, who leads the Texas Oyster Association. “They start cracking open, they start leaking water, meaning that some of them are dying, or suffering.”

Johny Jurisich, an oyster harvester whose family owns US Sea Products, has seen the market decline. (Credit: Callaghan O'Hare for The Texas Tribune)

Jurisich's family owns US Sea Products, a wholesale seafood company. The fourth-generation oyster harvester said a number of factors have affected Gulf of Mexico oysters in recent years, including hurricanes, droughts, warmer temperatures and pollution.

TPWD said in a 2013 report that Hurricane Ike destroyed more than 6,000 acres of oyster reefs in Galveston in 2008. And Hurricane Harvey in 2017 killed much of the oyster population with heavy rains, Jurisich said.

Jurisich said the state’s new rules aimed at preserving oyster reefs have “strangled the industry.”

He estimates that his family’s company will lose a couple hundred thousand dollars this season.

“The market is in shambles,” Jurisich said. “People have told me and my brother that they will not buy a Texas oyster this season.”

Meanwhile, restaurants and other customers have been forced to source oysters from Louisiana and the East Coast, he said.

Gutierrez, who has spent his days doing maintenance on his boat, said he worries about the psychological toll this is having on oyster harvesters in the area.

But he is staying hopeful.

“Once the salt water enters your veins, it is impossible to forget about it,” he said. “It’s like a magnet you have in your body. If you are not within the water, you aren’t happy.”

An employee at US Sea Products on Thursday sweeps the area where oysters are usually brought after being harvested. (Credit: Callaghan O'Hare for The Texas Tribune)

Disclosure: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Nature Conservancy have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Correction, Dec. 19, 2022: Due to incorrect information received from the state, a previous version of this story included the incorrect threshold for when the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department closes an oyster reef for the season. The agency closes reefs when sampling finds that oysters are smaller than 3 inches and the number of oysters caught per hour falls below 400, not 40.