No Oyster Season This Year, Alabama Harvesters Told

In a move with little to no precedent, Alabama conservation officials have told oyster fisherman there won’t be an oyster season in the year ahead, because there just don’t seem to be enough oysters in state waters to justify one.

Blanket closures in the past have been driven by disasters such as hurricanes and the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. Scott Bannon, director of the Marine Resources Division of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, said this apparently is the first time a closure has been driven by a dearth of oysters.

The news was received with resignation by a small group of seafood harvesters and dealers who turned out for a meeting in Coden. For them, the loss of a single year was far overshadowed by concern about an apparent collapse of the region's oyster ecology and what might be done to reverse it.

To read the rest of the story, please go to: AL.com