Oyster Season Sparks a War Between States

HOUSTON â€”  It turns out everything really is bigger in Texas, right down to the sacks of oysters.

Texas and Louisiana, the nation’s largest oyster-producing states, have become enmeshed in an unusual seafaring tussle. Louisiana fishermen say the trouble boils down to the Texans’ tendency to overstuff the sacks of oysters that are unloaded at scores of communities lining the Gulf of Mexico.

Traditionally kept to about 100 pounds, sacks that weigh more than 130 pounds are being packed and distributed this winter in Texas, commercial fishing analysts from both states say. Oysters often are sold on a per-sack basis, so the added weight in Texas has destabilized prices nationwide, making it impossible for Louisiana to keep pace in the market, fishermen there say.

“The size of those sacks is a killer,� said Brad Robin, an owner of Robin Seafood, an oyster harvesting, processing and distribution company based in Yscloskey, La., about 30 miles south of New Orleans. “In order to blow us out of the market, they stuff in another 20 or 30 pounds of oysters. Now they’ve got so much in their sacks that we can’t compete.�

Texans question the extent of the problem, and say the larger sacks are merely a matter of supply and demand -- no different than in any other industry.

“They call it a ‘Texas sack,’ � said Pete Flores of Texas Parks and Wildlife, referring to the oversized bundles of oysters.

“It just so happens that we’ve got a bumper crop of oysters. It’s a good year -- a very good year. As in any market, you work with the ebb and the flow. It’s business,� Flores said.

The size of oyster sacks is no trifling matter in Louisiana, which generates about half of the $500-million-per-year Gulf Coast oyster industry. Early French settlers are believed to have established the first oyster fields in Louisiana, and oysters remain a lifeline for many seaside communities there.

Louisiana typically produces about 250 million pounds of in-the-shell oysters each year, making it the nation’s largest producer. Texas produces about a quarter of that and is the second-largest oyster-producing state. A thin inlet called the Sabine Pass separates the two states’ waters, forming what many fishermen call a natural rivalry.

Despite the industry’s importance to Louisiana, many there say it’s difficult to know where to turn with allegations of overstuffed oyster sacks.

Most harvesters and distributors keep to a loose 100-pound limit on oyster sacks -- but still find plenty of wriggle room while maneuvering for profit.

In the past, for instance, distributors frequently have guaranteed oyster harvesters a price on 100-pound sacks -- provided the fishermen throw in extra sacks for free. That way, the fishermen aren’t overstuffing their sacks, but they are effectively lowering the price of the deal by including free oysters, said Mike Voisin, chairman of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force, an oversight committee made up of industry representatives and state regulators.

Voisin, owner of Motivatit Seafoods in Houma, La., is a seventh-generation Louisiana oysterman. He distributes oysters that are caught throughout the Gulf Coast states.

“It’s not illegal to give somebody something for free, or to give someone a good price on something,� he said. “But it does impact the market.�

Texas’ annual oyster season began Nov. 1. It soon became clear that the state would reap a large crop, prompting fishermen there to begin angling for a position in the marketplace. That appears to have been the genesis of the larger sacks this winter, analysts say.

Another factor appears to be algae blooms that have infiltrated some oyster breeding grounds in Texas recently, Voisin said. Oysters that feed on the algae before they are harvested occasionally turn green or red. The tint is not harmful to consumers, but is unusual enough that fishermen who catch colored oysters often have to piece together special deals to sell them.

Stuffing more oysters into a sack is one way to compensate for a perceived flaw in the product, analysts say.

Prices began to drop a bit within weeks of Texas launching its oyster season, to less than $20 a sack, Voisin said. In recent weeks, the discrepancy between Texas and Louisiana has become so pronounced that oyster harvesters in Louisiana cannot sell their product, Robin said, because they are unable to offer competing prices.

Similar complaints have begun to simmer in Alabama and Florida, two smaller oyster-producing states.

It is not the first time that the size of oyster sacks has been an issue between fishermen from different Gulf Coast states. Many have proposed devising a standard national measurement for oysters, but consensus has been difficult to reach.

Burlap sacks that weigh in the neighborhood of 100 pounds have been the closest thing to common currency in the oyster business, but different states continue to use different measurements to regulate the industry.

Louisiana, for instance, regulates by volume, requiring fishermen to put 1 1/2 bushels of oysters in each sack. Texas bases its regulations largely on a boat’s total yield, Flores said, capping each boat’s catch at 150 sacks of oysters each day.

With competing traditions and regulations more the rule than the exception, some Texas oyster distributors say they are mystified by the charges coming from across the Louisiana state line.

Curtis Miller, owner of Miller’s Seafood, a harvesting, distribution and shucking operation in Seadrift, on the central coast of Texas, said most fishermen in his region adhere to the traditional 100-pound cap on oyster sacks.

“I can’t speak for everybody,� he said. “But I sure follow it.�