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Oyster season on its way, but so is red tide
Published October 20, 2009
Howdy! Nov. 1 is a special day along the Texas Gulf Coast because it is opening day of oyster season. To those of us who delight in these delectable bivalves, it is something we have been waiting for all summer. This year, our water is starting to cool off a little early, so maybe those oysters will fatten up earlier, too. It must be a global warming thing.
Cooked is good, too: I no longer consume these tasty morsels raw, but still enjoy a platter of fried oysters with crackers and a little red sauce with a touch of olive oil. It makes me glad I live on the Gulf Coast.
While we are looking for this opening day, we also are looking at something moving up the coast known as red tide. When I went to school way back when, we were told we don’t have red tide in the western Gulf of Mexico. It was isolated to the west coast of Florida.
After we had a very large outbreak of red tide in 1986, we have gone back and looked at some older data, and it seems while it didn’t happen often, there probably were red tide balloons off Texas back into the 1930s.
Now with more information and our ability to look more closely at the algae in our water, we find we have red tides in Texas, but not as frequently as Florida. This current outbreak started off South Padre Island. This past Friday, it was noticed up around Port Aransas.
Locals on the lookout: There is a group of trained citizen scientists affectionately known as Red Tide Rangers who go out regularly and sample different parts of our Gulf Coast and bays, looking at what types of algae and other microscopic organisms are in our water. They report no blooms of red tide in Brazoria County.
Red tide is caused by naturally occurring algae known as Karenia brevis, which produces a neurotoxin that affects the central nervous system of fish and other vertebrates. It can cause fish kills by paralyzing their gills, and the fish no longer can breathe.
We are not sure why red tide starts to bloom, but in Texas, we know it normally starts in the fall and usually seems to occur after a drought, so we were not surprised when it happened this year.
The concern of red tide in oysters is because the oyster doesn’t move. The red tide toxin does not affect the oyster because it is not a vertebrate, but the oyster is able to accumulate the toxin. It can rid itself of the toxin in about two weeks after the water has cleared up.
This is why the Texas Health Department monitors the level of toxins in oysters that have been exposed to a red tide bloom. Right now, none of the bays are closed because of this; however, I am sure they are starting to keep a close eye on Aransas and other bays close to Port Aransas.
Our waters ARE SAFE: It is safe to go to our lovely beaches and catch the great fish, and after oyster season opens, you can go out and get you a couple of buckets full. Our office maintains the charts that show the open waters. East Bay in Galveston is closed because of the damage to the oyster reefs from Hurricane Ike, but everything else along the Texas Coast that normally is open will be open.
If you haven’t taken a kid oystering, it’s a good opportunity to create some great memories and learn something.
Rich Tillman is the Brazoria County marine agent. Contact him at 979-864-1564, or e-mail richt(at)brazoria-county.com.
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