SAN LEON, Texas — The stormy weather over the past few weeks didn't only damage Houston area homes and trees. It devastated the oyster industry in Galveston Bay.
The surge of fresh water to the bay is killing its local oyster population and the industry behind them. It only took a few weeks of rain to nearly wipe out all of the oysters in Galveston Bay and it will take years for their numbers to come back. It doesn’t matter where the water falls, it eventually ends up flowing to Galveston Bay and then into the Gulf of Mexico.
But that much water, all at once, can be fatal.
“It’s deadly to oysters when you get that amount of fresh water,” Prestige Oysters Vice President Raz Halili said. “They’re resilient creatures but there’s only so much they can take.”
The San Leon-based company is where they shuck, sell and ship oysters to the rest of the country by truckloads.
Out in the water are their oyster reefs.
“We had tremendous amounts of multi-generations of oysters here on Galveston Bay, and to go out there and see them pretty much wiped out within a few weeks ... it’s tough,” Halili said.
The problem is that oysters can only survive in brackish water: the delicate mix of salt water and fresh water that under normal conditions Galveston Bay can provide. But the persistent rainstorms and flood waters have thrown off that perfect balance to the point that the bivalves are dying and there is no way to help them.
“Five million dollars worth of inventory that we lost here in Galveston Bay,” Halili said.
It’s an expensive problem, which is why Galveston County Judge Mark Henry issued a disaster declaration for the local oyster industry at the start of June. The county judge’s office told KHOU 11 that the declaration will hopefully bring federal funding to the industry that has suddenly found itself underwater.
Halili said Galveston Bay’s oyster industry is often overlooked but federal assistance is necessary for this crisis. Not only for the oyster devotees but also for the ecosystem as a whole.
“They provide life for other creatures, they filter our water, they clean our bay systems, and they’re our first barrier to coastal erosion,” Halili explained.