Oyster fishermen and local biologist agree tonging won't help oysters

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State lawmakers just passed a bill requiring oyster fishermen in Calcasieu Lake to use tongs instead of dredges. The oyster fishermen say it's a step backwards that will make their lives harder and won't help the resource. At least one local biologist agrees with the fishermen.

The bill has been sent to the governor for his signature.

Commercial fishing is a hard way to make a living in Cameron, where right now they're catching shrimp. But if they get an oyster season, buyer Adley Dyson says it will be harder when fishermen have to go back to tonging, instead of dredging. He says tonging is like using a post hole digger and he disputes it will do any good:

"If you catch seven sacks of oysters, you're taking seven sacks out of the lake. It doesn't matter how you catch them. Seven sacks, is seven sacks,"said Dyson.

Kevin Savoie is a biologist with the LSU extension service and Sea Grant for 25 years... He agrees the oysters have declined...but says it's largely due to environmental conditions including past droughts.

"We've got to work toward a long term sustainable solution to help these oysters recover and to manage it as a renewable natural resource, because it's very valuable to the town of Cameron. It's worth about three to four million dollars a year on average in the last ten years. That's big for a small community of forty or fifty fishermen and several buyers,"he said.

Savoie does not think switching from dredging to tonging will improve the oyster situation...

"I don't think tonging is going to make a bit of difference to the resource, because even in the heaviest harvest years, in 2009 when we harvested 137,000 sacks, that was only about 20% of the marketable stock,"said Savoie.

Dyson says last season, fishermen had no problem quickly catching their limit.

"At the beginning of the season they caught their limit in an hour and a half. And the last day of the season they caught their limit in an hour and a half. If the oysters were getting depleted it would take longer to catch them," said Dyson.

Still, Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries says commercial harvest of oysters in Calcasieu Lake may threaten long-term sustainability of oysters there. The most recent season ended in February.

Bill 156 was sponsored by Representative Stephen Dwight of Lake Charles who has said without switching to tonging there will be no oyster season.

To hear more of our interview with Savoie look for our web extra.