Red Tide Indefinitely Delays Start Of TX Oyster Season - Was To Have Begun 1 November - H. Chronicle

[hatrack]

GALVESTON - The red tide taints rather than kills oysters, but for now it has killed any chance Carlos Reyes has of plying his trade.

Reyes, 40, of Texas City, owns two oyster boats that soon would have been dragging Galveston Bay for its luscious deep-cup, rounded oysters. But a strain of red tide has polluted the oyster beds, causing the Texas Department of Health to indefinitely delay the oyster season scheduled to open Tuesday.

The delay sent oyster boat captains like Reyes and their crews scrambling to find other jobs. "They are looking for jobs cutting lawns, doing carpentry or hanging sheetrock," Reyes said. Instead of rigging his boats, the Alexandra and the El Aguila, Reyes on Friday was using a welding rig to repair someone else's boat.

The same problem is affecting oystermen all along the Texas coast, said Lisa Halili, who along with her husband, Johnny, owns Prestige Oysters in San Leon. Halili says Prestige is the largest shipper of fresh oysters in the country, selling more than $200 million in oysters annually and marketing oysters from more than 100 boats. The company buys oysters from oystermen all along the Texas Coast and owns beds in Galveston Bay, Louisiana and Florida.

EDIT

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Red-tide-latest-blow-to-oystermen-2242099.php