September 8, 2016 — JEFFERSON PARISH, La. — Oyster season opened Wednesday, but only in parts of Louisiana. Reports from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries do not look good for oyster stock or oyster farmers.

Louisiana is the biggest oyster-producing state in the nation. According to figures from 2014, it is a $317 million industry employing about 3,500 people. But the industry is suffering, and several harvesting areas will be off-limits because of shortages.

Factors contributing to the low resources include too much fresh water in the areas in which the oysters grow and the 2010 Gulf Oil spill, which has led to a steady decline in production.

“It’s getting worse and worse, and I don’t know where it goes from here,” said Matthew Lepetich, a second-generation oyster farmer and owner of Mato’s Premium Oysters. “I remember this time of the year, right after Labor Day, we were getting the boats ready and we were going to work.”

On opening day of this season, however, Lepetich was nowhere near the water, “because there’s no season. There’s no seed. There’s no oyster. There’s nothing, and it’s been that way for several years. Ever since Katrina, it never really recovered because Katrina knocked holes in the levee and they haven’t filled them,” he said.”

Read the full story at WDSU