July 25, 2014 — Oysters in some local restaurants may not be from Louisiana because of historically low production this year.
Some oyster suppliers have even been buying oysters from other Gulf and East Coast states to keep up with demand.
For the first time in the 43 years, Motivatit Seafoods, the leading oyster harvesting and production company in Houma, is bringing in some of its oysters from Chesapeake Bay, said Greg Voisin, Motivatit’s marketing and sales vice president.
“About 60 percent of our oysters come from Terrebonne, Lafourche and West St. Mary’s parishes,” he said. “The other percent of our oysters come from other areas in Louisiana, Texas, and we’ve supplemented some Chesapeake Bay oysters this past year.”
East of the Mississippi River, Louisiana oyster production may not come back for a few years. There are signs of reproduction, but the conditions aren’t right yet. This area has not produced since the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
And that has affected many oystermen around Louisiana.
Nick Collins, fourth generation south Lafourche oysterman at Collin’s Oyster Co., said he knows of fifth-generation oyster harvesters who didn’t have enough money saved up, are out of business and lost everything because of the oil spill and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
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