October 26th, 2016 — A 54-acre oyster reef built in Matagorda Bay is benefiting more than sea life.
Half Moon Reef has become a fishing hot spot, adding $691,000 to the state’s domestic gross product each year and creating a dozen jobs, according to a Nature Conservancy study released this month.
About three years ago, the reef was dead. While there was some hard material left to build upon, there were no live oysters, said Mark Dumesnil, the associate director of coastal restoration in Texas for The Nature Conservancy.
The reef was once almost 500 acres, but dredging, major changes in hydrology that altered the amount of water entering Matagorda Bay and, possibly, a hurricane left the reef defunct.
In 2013, when Dumesnil and other researchers began their effort to bring the reef back to life, their main priority was to create a habitat for fish.
“It’s more than just the oysters,” he said. “My goal was to restore it for all of the ecosystem services.”
Oyster reefs can help clean water, provide habitat for a huge diversity of reef-dependent sea life and help reduce the amount and prevalence of harmful algal blooms by removing nitrogen from the water.
But soon Dumesnil was receiving phone calls and emails from fishing guides who were reaping benefits of their own. So, The Nature Conservancy teamed up with Texas Sea Grant to survey anglers and fishing guides to quantify the social and economic benefits of Half Moon Reef.