April 25, 2014 — Gulf oystermen are experiencing the lowest oyster supply that many of them have seen and they suspect that the BP/ Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 is to blame.
“We have been in business for 19 years, and haven’t been shut down except for a couple of hurricanes and the BP oil spill. However, last summer and going into the summer have been the most challenging time that we have had for procuring oysters,” John Tesvich, president of processor AmeriPure Oyster Company in Franklin, La., and chair of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force, told SeafoodSource.
The shortage of high quality oysters is significant, since the Gulf produces an estimated 70 percent of U.S. oysters. Since oysters take around three years to reach full maturity, Gulf oystermen and buyers believe they are seeing the effects of the oil spill. “The most logical thing is the oil spill,” Tesvich said.
“Areas that once produced abundantly a few years ago are barren,” said Wilber Collins, owner of Collins Oyster Company and a member of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force, in a statement from the Gulf Seafood Institute.
Read the full story at Seafood Source