The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has launched an $810,000 project to restore oyster reefs destroyed when Hurricane Ike struck Galveston a year ago.
At least half the habitat in Galveston Bay was destroyed when debris and sediment smothered oyster reefs throughout Galveston Bay.
The department is focusing its efforts on two destroyed Galveston Bay oyster habitats: East Bay in an area between the Stingaree Restaurant in Crystal Beach and Chambers County, and the north shoreline of Eagle Point in San Leon.
In East Bay, state crews put a layer of reef-building materials called cultch on 20 acres of oyster habitat. East Bay once was covered with natural oyster reefs, but those were destroyed when oyster shell was mined during the 1960s, Jennie Rohrer, the state’s oyster mapping and restoration biologist, said.
“It used to be very viable,” she said.
What little reefs were left in East Bay were destroyed when Hurricane Ike’s storm surge scoured Bolivar Peninsula, pushing sediment and debris from wrecked houses into Galveston Bay.
State officials dropped river rock and crushed concrete into East Bay to provide a place for oyster larvae to settle and grow into adult oysters. The restoration project, which started Sept. 1, forced the closure of that area to commercial fishermen for the next two years to allow the oysters to recover, Rohrer said. After two years, the public oyster reefs will be reopened for commercial fishing.
The department also is working to restore two acres of habitat in San Leon through “oyster gardening.” The department enlisted help from people who agreed to hang mesh bags filled with oyster larvae from their piers. Oysters that grow in the mesh bags then will be scattered on reefs constructed near Eagle Point.
That area is closed to commercial oyster fishing because of high bacteria counts, Rohrer said.
The restoration effort is a small step but a good start in trying to create 350 acres of oyster reef in Galveston Bay, she said.
Restoring the bay’s oyster population should improve commercial fishing in the area, Rohrer said. Oysters, which feed by filtering phytoplankton, also filter silt and contaminants from the water. Oyster reefs also provide habitats for bottom-dwelling fish and invertebrates, which are then eaten by larger game fish.
