The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) will open several bays to commercial and recreational oyster harvesting at 12:01 a.m. Monday, Nov. 2. Before the season, TPWD collected oyster samples to decide which areas would open. One factor is whether the number of legal-sized oysters, those 3 inches or longer, reaches a set threshold.
Four sampled areas met the threshold. Four other areas had high numbers of market oysters on some reefs but did not meet the threshold overall because other reefs had fewer oysters. TPWD said some of these areas will still open to give harvesters more places to fish and to spread out boats.
Open areas include TX-1 and TX-5 in Galveston Bay, TX-13, TX-19 and TX-20 in Matagorda Bay, and TX-29, TX-30 and TX-32 in Aransas Bay. TX-33 in Corpus Christi Bay and TX-34 in the Lower Laguna Madre were not sampled but will also open. TPWD said these two areas typically have no commercial oyster harvest. All other areas will be closed to public harvest at the start. TPWD coastal fisheries staff will keep monitoring areas and open or close them as thresholds are met. A map and current status of each area are on the Texas Department of State Health Services website.