POINTE A LA HACHE – A decades-long moratorium on new oyster leases in coastal Louisiana is ending, raising hopes that one of the mainstays of Louisiana cuisine will stage a comeback after years of environmental setbacks and litigation.
On the heels of new state rules that became effective in April of 2020, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has moved to lift the oyster lease moratorium in southeastern Louisiana that dates back to 2002. The leasing of tracts of the sea bottom to oyster harvesting will take place in phases, according to the department, beginning with 35 applications that predate the moratorium.
New lease applications were put on hold in the wake of coastal restoration efforts, litigation against the state by leaseholders and the BP oil spill, which devastated many of the oyster cultivation areas along the coast.
“I’ve always felt it should never have been put in place,” Byron Encalade, president of the Louisiana Oystermen Association, said of the moratorium. The ban prevented state agencies from moving forward on making policies that could enhance production and advance coastal restoration efforts, according to Encalade.
“If there’s a moratorium and you can’t do anything about it, you can’t obtain leases and you can’t create policy with respect to the coastal restoration,” he told the Louisiana Record. “Then how do you move the industry forward to protect these communities where that resource has been a driving engine for the local economies for generations?”
A full reopening of the leasing process won’t occur overnight, since all the different parties want something different out of the process, according to Encalade.
“It’s going to take time,” he said. “It’s not a silver bullet.”
The lifting of the ban is the first step in the process, according to Encalade, and the road toward improved oyster harvests and economic benefits will be difficult as the political and legal fights wind down.
“Any time you have that many multiuse parties on the coast or things that threaten the environment, of course you’re going to have problems,” he said. “... We’ll take on those challenges as they come.”
More than two-thirds of the oysters caught nationwide come from the Gulf Coast, according to the Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board. In Louisiana, the industry supports 4,000 jobs and boasts an economic value of $317 million per year, the board reports.