A Brief History of the
Louisiana Oyster Industry
Exploitation
of oyster resources has occurred for thousands of years, dating from at least
2,000 B.C. Evidence of oyster use can also be found in the numerous shell
middens formed by Native Americans along coastlines of the United States. In
Louisiana, early French settlers were reported to have harvested oysters and as
oysters rose in popularity, their collection, sale, and distribution also
expanded.
In
the mid 1840s, Croatian-Slavonian immigrants moved to Louisiana and began
fishing for oysters in the rich estuarine waters adjacent to the Mississippi
River below New Orleans. Through careful observation and year of experience,
the fishermen realized that an abundance of oysters grew on the eastern side of
the river. They also began moving oysters from overcrowded reefs on the east
side to areas on the west side where salinity was more favorable, current more
steady, and food was plentiful. These oysters grew to a more round-oval shape,
matured quicker, and developed tastier meat. The oystermen gather the seed
oysters, plant them in a favorable spot, allow the seed to grow into mature,
market-size oysters, and harvest the crop. While the Slavonians were developing
the oyster industry in estuaries near the Mississippi River, others, such as
the Cajuns, were beginning to do the same in coastal areas farther to the west.
This
cultivation of oysters has developed over the years into a partnership between
the state and private oystermen through the use of both public seed grounds and
privately leased state water bottoms. Oystermen lease waterbottoms from the
state for $2.00 per acre per year and use that area as a place to grow oysters
for market. In most cases, oystermen travel to the public grounds, dredge the seed
onto their boat (called a lugger), and transport the seed to their lease where
it is washed overboard by large water hoses. After allowing the seed to grow
(1-2 years), they return to the lease and dredge the mature oysters onto the
deck, cull away dead shell and fouling (attached) organisms, and place the
oysters in sacks. Each sack is then tagged with information such as harvester
name, date, and location of harvest, before being taken to market.
A
Louisiana oyster lugger, the Capt. Pete Vujnovich
The
method of oyster harvest has also evolved over the years. It began with the
oystermen hand-picking the oysters from reefs, with harvests limited by depth
of the water, weather, and physical strains hand-picking placed on the body.
The early immigrants collected seed oysters, placed them on skiffs, and rowed
or sailed to favorable areas. Once in a favorable area, they painstakingly
“planted” the oysters one by one with enough space in-between to allow the
oysters room to grow. They soon realized that a fish, which was abundant in
coastal waters, was a voracious predator of their young oysters and they took
great effort in protecting their crop. They enclosed the oysters with wooden
fences in order to keep the black drum (Pogonias
cromis) away and also to keep others from poaching their crop. Soon,
oystermen developed oyster tongs (likely from two garden rakes) with which to
collect oysters while standing on the boat.
Black
Drum (Pogonias cromis)
The
modern method for harvesting oysters, the dredge, was developed by a Croatian fisherman in 1905. The dredge involved using a
V-shaped iron frame with a 1-meter long ring-mesh bag towed behind the
boat. This method is still used today in all areas of the state except in
Calcasieu and Sabine Lake where tonging is the only legal method of harvesting
oysters.
The
leasing of water bottoms began in the 1850s when oystermen leased areas from
the parishes. However, when the Louisiana Oyster Commission (predecessor to the
Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries) was formed in 1902, oystermen
began leasing water bottoms from the state. The first official state lease was
granted in November1902 to Joseph R. Brown of Port Eads, Louisiana. His lease
was located on the west side of the river in what was once Whale Bay (exact
location of Whale Bay is unknown today due to coastal erosion). Today there are
thousands of leases encompassing hundreds of thousands of acres along the
coast.
The
economics of harvesting oysters has changed greatly over time as well. Around
the turn of the century, oystermen sold oysters by the barrel for $3.00 to
$4.00. This unit of measure is still used today to describe the amount of seed
oysters a fisherman is collecting for transplanting on his lease. This barrel
equals roughly two modern sacks of oysters, and sacks sell today for anywhere
between $10.00 and $20.00. However, the law of supply and demand helps to
determine prices and prices were as low as $5.00 per sack in 1973 to as high as
$28.00 per sack in 1992.
The
Louisiana oyster industry is one of the most successful oyster fisheries in the
country and, through proper management of the public oyster resource, its
continued success appears evident. Effective management of the state’s seed
grounds involves several techniques including cultch planting and freshwater
diversions. Adding freshwater to a system drives out oyster predators that need
higher salinity waters to survive. Oyster larvae need hard, clean surfaces to
attach to in order to survive. From time to time, the state will plant cultch
material (usually old shell or limestone rock) on the public seed grounds to
increase the available substrate on which larvae can settle. This is one of the
most effective management techniques employed today that helps to ensure
Louisiana’s oyster resource is stable and strong for years to come.
REFERENCES
DUGAS,
R. J., E. A. JOYCE, AND M. E. BERRIGAN. 199???. History and status of the
oyster, Crassostrea virginica, and other molluscan fisheries of the U. S. Gulf
of Mexico. NOAA Technical Report. NMFS 217:187-210.
PAUSINA,
B. V. 1970. Louisiana oyster culture. Pages 29-34 in J. W. Avault Jr., E.
Boudreaux, and E. Jaspers (eds.) Proceedings of the first annual workshop:
World Mariculture Society. Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
PAUSINA,
R. 1988. An oyster farmer’s perspective to the past, the present, and the
future of the Louisiana oyster industry. Journal of Shellfish Research.
7(3):531-534.
VUJNOVICH,
M. M. 1974. Yugoslavs in Louisiana. Pelican Publishing Company. Gretna,
Louisiana. 412 p.
WICKER,
K. M. 1979. The development of the Louisiana oyster industry in the 19th
century. Louisiana State University. Baton Rouge, Masters thesis, 214 p.
ZACHARIE,
F. C. 1897. The Louisiana oyster industry. Bulletin of the United States Fish
Commission. Volume XVII. Washington, D. C. 297-304.