If the Mississippi oyster industry rebounds from the disastrous past 11 years, its rebirth likely will begin in an out-of-the-way hatchery about 40 miles from the Sound.
The state hopes to buy Aqua Green — which Louisiana politician/businessman Walter Boasso started as a finfish hatchery in 2008 — with BP settlement and taxpayer money totaling about $10 million, according to the University of Southern Mississippi.
The university for more than a year tested the feasibility of converting Aqua Green to an oyster farm before committing to buying it.
“You only get so many bites of that BP apple, so before we wasted one of our bites we wanted to be sure we could do what we said we could do, said Gordon Cannon, USM vice president for research. “Once the funding comes through, we’ll build this out and increase our capacity quite a bit.”
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