Legislators Look For Ways To Save Galveston Bay Commercial Oystering

SEADRIFT – A fight over 23,000 acres of sea bottom in Galveston Bay has the state reconsidering how the commercial oyster industry should operate in the future.

At issue is a lease signed by the Chambers-Liberty Counties Navigation District, giving Tracy Woody and his father-in-law, Ben Nelson, the sole ability to harvest oysters in 23,000 acres of Galveston Bay.

When the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and General Land Office refused to recognize the lease, Woody and his partner, which comprise Sustainable Texas Oyster Resource Management, commonly referred to as STORM, took their issue to the state Legislature.

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