[StBernard] New cap on oyster boats won't keep Texans out of Louisiana waters

[Westley Annis]

New cap on oyster boats won't keep Texans out of Louisiana waters
by Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune 
Saturday January 03, 2009, 9:52 PM

As dusk falls along Bayou la Loutre in Yscloskey, the thin wisps of smoke
from smoldering burlap oyster sacks signal the end of a day's work and the
beginning of a nightly ritual in this remote St. Bernard Parish fishing
outpost. 

The fires ward off stinging gnats as an assembly line of workers at Robin's
Seafood Co. hauls dozens of sacks of oysters from the Capt. Doogie onto
pallets for transport to New Orleans and beyond. 

The daily rhythm of oyster dredging in Lake Borgne has been a 28-year
constant for Capt. John Mejia, but the past two seasons have brought change
for Mejia and many of the hardscrabble local oyster fishers who cull the
reefs south of New Orleans. 

Unfamiliar oyster boats, many from Texas, have joined their ranks since
Hurricane Katrina, causing local industry veterans to grumble about an
influx of new fishers just as Louisiana's industry is recovering from the
storm. A turf battle has evolved into a free-trade and property-rights
debate, with many longtime Louisiana fishers saying out-of-state newcomers
are damaging the productivity of the state's oyster reefs and jeopardizing
the industry's future. 

"They worry about what they can get today," Mejia said after loading the
last sack onto a humming conveyor belt. "They don't worry about tomorrow." 

Texas has had a ban on new oyster license sales since 2005, which Louisiana
oyster fishers say creates an uneven playing field in which Texas fishers
are free to roam both states while Louisianians are not. 

"All the rest of the states' (fishers) can go back to their states and fish,
but Louisiana's got to stay at home," said Brad Robin, a longtime oyster
dealer in Yscloskey. 


Unintended effects 

Louisiana industry leaders took the fight to Baton Rouge last year, securing
legislation that sets up the first-ever cap on the number of oyster boats
allowed to fish the state's 2,500 square miles of public oyster reefs. The
law went into effect Thursday, but it has already created unintended
consequences. 

An earlier version of the law, introduced last spring by Reps. Ernest
Wooton, R-Belle Chasse, and Reed Henderson, D-Violet, was meant to allow
only Louisiana residents to harvest the public oyster grounds. But after
legal concerns arose, the bill was changed to prohibit anyone who purchased
a license after May 2007 from fishing the public grounds, creating a
limited-entry system. 

Proponents say the new regulations will better protect the natural resources
from being overtaxed by too many boats, but they might also exclude some
Louisiana residents who may be interested in joining the industry. 

"What you're doing here is putting out a lot of deckhands who wanted to buy
boats," said Henry Martin, owner of Gulf Island Seafood in Hopedale, an
oyster dock just down the bayou from Yscloskey. 

The law does include an appeals board comprised of industry representatives
to judge requests for those excluded by the system. In order to qualify for
the public oyster-ground vessel permit, an owner must have had an oyster
fishing license and sold oysters at some point between 2004 and May 31,
2007. There is also a provision to grant a permit to boat owners who
purchased or built a new vessel between 2004 and April 30, 2008. 

If a retiring owner sells a permitted boat to a new industry entrant, the
permit must be relinquished and the state Department of Wildlife and
Fisheries must reissue it to the new owner. The permit restriction applies
only to public oyster reefs in the state; those who don't qualify could
still harvest oysters on private leases. 

Regulatory hurdles 

The law has already created an administrative challenge for Wildlife and
Fisheries, which has already received more than 20 requests for appeals to
get vessel permits. Patrick Banks, a biologist who manages the department's
oyster program, said he has heard from several Louisiana fishers who may
have shifted from shrimping into the oyster industry during the past year
who won't qualify. 

"There's a lot of folks that leave my office screaming that this law is
unconstitutional and this isn't fair and how can this happen in America," he
said. "We're the ones having to tell folks they can't go to work tomorrow
because they can't qualify for a permit, and that's a difficult position for
the department to be in." 

Many of the out-of-state boats originally targeted by the law still qualify
for the licenses because owners had purchased licenses in the past and
worked on and off between Louisiana and Texas in recent years. Louisiana
license data show the biggest jump in nonresident oyster licenses came
between 2004 and 2005. The numbers that year went from 64 to 89. By
mid-2008, the number had risen to 99. 

Al Sunseri, the general manager of P&J Oyster Co. in New Orleans, said he
thinks local oyster fishers' post-Katrina concerns reflect typical changes
in any business cycle, as opposed to a wholesale takeover by out-of-state
interests. 

"For the most part, you have the same players who have been in the business
for a very long time, it's just that they've expanded their business and it
may have impacted other people who are older in the business and are
accustomed to certain things," he said. "Things change, things grow. Nothing
stays the same." 

More out-of-state boats 

St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parish oystermen were screaming the loudest
about the Texas problem last year; high productivity on public oyster reefs
in the southeast part of the state attracted more out-of-state boats to the
area. In addition, new businesses with Texas roots were expanding in lower
St. Bernard as some older docks went by the wayside. 

"We have our own dealers who take care of our own people," said George
Barisich, president of the United Commercial Fisherman's Association, which
brought the fight to the Legislature last year. "We don't need a lot of
outsiders to come in at a bad time for us." 

Prestige Oysters Inc. near Galveston, Texas, has had docks throughout
Louisiana for years but formally purchased dock space in Hopedale last year.
The company has a loyal fleet of boats -- from Texas and Louisiana -- that
came with more frequency after the company expanded its buying operations. 

Lisa Halili, who manages Prestige, said the fears of local fishers were
exaggerated compared with the actual numbers of new boats arriving at the
docks. 

"If the intent of this new law was to hurt us, it didn't hurt anybody in
Texas. It didn't hurt anybody who fishes from me," she said. "I think it's
just because we are a very large shipper of oysters -- and when we bought
our own dock, they went into a panic." 

Shane Bagala, a Louisiana oyster fisher who lives in New Iberia but fishes
out of Hopedale, has sold to Prestige for years. Several of the Texas boats
lining the bayou have worked in Hopedale for years, he said, but he agreed
that the increase in the past two years created a different atmosphere in
the close-knit community. 

"Most of your people here are just starting to come back after Katrina, and
then you've got an influx of out-of-state boats," he said. "It just made a
bad situation worse." 

Humberto Jiron, who lives in Texas City, north of Galveston on the bay, has
worked back and forth between both states for 10 years. After Hurricane Ike
disrupted much of Texas' oyster production this fall, he has worked mostly
in Louisiana for Prestige this season. 

He's heard the complaints from locals but doesn't pay much attention. "They
feel like we're stealing from them," he said. "But no matter how many people
work, somebody's going to be jealous of you because they want to be the only
ones." 

Protecting reefs 

Although the limited-entry law is exclusive, supporters say it is a
necessary measure to prevent degradation of Louisiana's public oyster reefs.
Many locals say out-of-state boats overfished the public reefs last year,
leaving less for this year and the future. 

A few miles down Hopedale Highway, Troy Deroche and Roland Master were
unloading hundreds of sacks of oysters at Gulf Island Seafood. Because of
scant production on the public reefs, the two were already fishing from
private leases that are typically reserved for late spring months when the
public grounds are closed. 

"Too many boats last year; they took 'em all," Deroche said over the roar of
the boat's engine. 

There are already fears that the public oyster season will close earlier
this year because of the resource problems, giving fishers who rely on state
grounds less time to make money. The season is currently set to close at the
end of March. 

"Unfortunately there's not enough room for everybody; it's a resource
issue," said John Tesvich, a Plaquemines Parish oyster leaseholder and
processor who pushed for the new regulations. 

"We had to do something for the industry to help the economics for the
traditional oysterman, because otherwise the season would just be closed
sooner and sooner. Then you start splitting the pie up and you can't make a
living out of oysters anymore." 

Chris Kirkham can be reached a ckirkham at timespicayune.com or 504.826.3321.