Mississippi's Oyster Season Closes Days After Opening

At Desporte and Sons Seafood in Biloxi there's no shortage of oysters--but if you look closer you'll see they're imported from other gulf states--Mississippi oysters are rare.  The Mississippi oyster harvest is short--just six days--and very small.

“About 64 sacks for a total of five days running so we're nowhere near where we normally are,” says Deputy Director of the MS Department of Marine Resources Joe Jewell.  Compare that to an average eight month season that nets more than 300,000 sacks and you'll see why oystermen are hurting this year. 

“This is a significant portion of your income this is how they pay their bills their mortgages this is how they make their living,” says Jewell.  The reason Mississippi's oyster population is so low goes back a few months ago when heavy flooding forced the opening of a large spillway--this forced freshwater into oyster habitats.  Officials opened the season not expecting to see much.

This stands in contrast to Alabama's oyster season which also started on Monday--many people closer to Mobile were having good days on the water--in part because fresh water from floods never got here.  Officials say they closed Mississippi’s season to preserve a fragile oyster resource.