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GULF OYSTER INDUSTRY PROGRAM NATIONAL SEA GRANT COLLEGE PROGRAM ATMOS ND PH A ER IC IC N A A D E M C I O N I S L T A R N A O T I I T O A N N U . S E . C D R E E PA M RT OM MENT OF C This publication was produced by the Louisiana Sea Grant College Program for the National Sea Grant College Program, September 2003. Written by Elizabeth Coleman Design and cover photo by Robert Ray For more information about the oyster research projects sponsored through Sea Grant’s Gulf Oyster Industry Program and Oyster Disease Research Program, contact: National Sea Grant College Program NOAA, 1335 East -West Highway Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 Website: http://www.nsgo.seagrant.org/research/oysterdisease/index.html For additional copies of this publication, contact: Communications Office Louisiana Sea Grant College Program Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803 Telephone: (225) 578-6448 GS JOB 54665 AUGUST 2003 ACCT 167-13-5126-3110 MOHAWK 50-10 PLUS SOFT WHITE MATTE 80# COVER-100# TEXT MARKS Q=500 Contents 3 Foreword 4 An Industry Under Siege The traditional oyster industry in the Gulf of Mexico faces challenges that may destroy it. The Gulf Oyster Industry Program, a remarkable partnership among industry, science, and government, provides a practical and effective means for keeping the industry viable. 7 Controlling Disease The control of oyster pathogens – both those that kill oysters and those that cause human illness – is a priority. Because these pathogens occur naturally in the water, the greatest hope for success in fighting them lies in the laboratory and the hatchery, primarily through genetics research. 10 Protecting Oysters In Place Research helps oyster farmers to cope with predators, oyster diseases, and other problems by improving husbandry practices on their leases. 13 The Coastal Environment Shellfish-producing waters are subject to closure because of contamination by viruses and fecal coliform bacteria. Radical changes in salinity caused by freshwater diversion can destroy oyster crops. Some research provides the means to prevent contaminants from reaching oyster-producing waters and to assist oyster farmers in relocating their oyster leases. 15 The Legal Landscape Frequently changing regulations can confuse oyster farmers about their rights and obligations as leaseholders and cause delays for government agencies planning freshwater diversion projects. An education project provides the objective information needed in decision-making by both the oyster industry and government. 15 Understanding the Market Consumer attitude and preference studies assist the oyster industry to address consumer concerns about oysters and to plan future educational and advertising programs. 16 A New Vision The future of the Gulf Coast oyster industry depends on the adoption of new culture methods, marketing strategies, and strains of oysters. The key to such an approach is a strong hatchery research system. The Gulf Oyster Industry: Seizing A Better Future Foreword When Congress established the The concept has been remark- oysters and the resulting struggles of Seizing A Better Future describes the National Sea Grant College Program ably successful. Thirty-seven years the oyster farming industry typify the progress made in the five-year-old in 1966, it was not building an later, a network of 30 programs, one kinds of problems for which Sea Gulf Oyster Industry Program, which academic ivory tower, but creating a in every coastal and Great Lakes state, Grant is the catalyst in finding targets not only diseases that destroy vigorous participant in the everyday draws on the expertise of thousands practical solutions. Through two oyster crops but pathogens carried by world of the people who lived and of scientists, educators, and outreach major national oyster research oysters that endanger human health. worked in coastal areas. The specialists in over 200 participating programs––the Oyster Disease For further information about the program was to provide a vehicle for universities and research institutions Research Program and the Gulf National Sea Grant College Program developing the nation’s coastal and to address problems in every aspect of Oyster Industry Research Program–– and its oyster disease research marine resources and perpetuating the marine and coastal environment: Sea Grant has brought together programs, contact the National Sea them for the benefit of generations fisheries, aquaculture, seafood academic researchers and oyster Grant College Program, NOAA, 1335 to come. processing, wetland management, industry leaders to restore the East-West Highway, Silver Spring, coastal land loss, marine industry, commercial and ecological viability Maryland 20910. aquatic recreation, economics, and of U.S. oyster harvests, especially law. The program’s interdisciplinary Crassostrea virginica on the east character and flexibility in teaming and gulf coasts and Crassostrea with coastal industry and government gigas on the west coast. allow it to respond rapidly to state, The Gulf Oyster Industry: regional, and national needs. The impacts of disease on The Gulf Oyster Industry: Seizing A Better Future 3 For generations, especially in Louisiana, Gulf Coast oyster fishermen have followed their fathers onto the oyster boats, forming a traditional industry that has consistently produced more than 12 million pounds of oysters a year – half the nation’s oyster supply. But each succeeding year seems to bring new challenges that crowd the industry closer to extinction. AN INDUSTRY Photo Courtesy of Louisiana Seafood Board Photo by Robert Ray 4 The Gulf Oyster Industry: Seizing A Better Future abitat changes, predators, Mississippi River has drastically changed Although the organism poses no threat and oyster-killing diseases the salinity levels of traditional oyster to the vast majority of people who eat raw Hsuch as Dermo (Perkinsus waters and destroyed oyster harvests. shellfish, a few relatively rare strains marinus), caused by a protozoan parasite, Perhaps the most serious challenge produce a severe intestinal infection that are old nemeses that have plagued the confronting the gulf oyster industry, can be fatal to people who have depressed industry for years and seem to be steadily however, is that posed by Vibrio vulnificus, immune systems or diseases of the blood, getting worse. Coastal urban development, an opportunistic pathogenic bacterium liver, or stomach. The U.S. Food and Drug including recreational camps, has contami related to the vibrio that causes cholera and Administration reports about a dozen nated once-isolated shellfish waters with commonly found in warm estuarine waters, deaths annually from vulnificus-tainted enteric viruses and bacteria that affect sediments, and raw shellfish. V. vulnificus shellfish, though the number may be higher humans, causing frequent and widespread occurs naturally, even in waters uncontami because not all states report deaths from V. closures of oyster beds. Most recently, in nated by sewage, so raw oysters from vulnificus to the Center for Disease Control Louisiana, coastal restoration projects have approved shellfish-growing areas can still in Atlanta. brought new problems as the introduction harbor it. of fresh water and sediment from the UNDER SIEGE Photo by Robert Ray Photo by Dede Lusk The Gulf Oyster Industry: Seizing A Better Future 5 Cooking kills the vibrio, as administrators for help with a well as other bacteria, but fearful The Gulf Oyster Industry Program (GOIP) long-term research program, an consumers nationwide are is administered through NOAA’s industry task force took a confused about the risks and National Sea Grant College Program and research prospectus to Washing- many have stopped eating even is nationally competitive in its ton D.C., where the growers cooked oysters. Various post- solicitation of research proposals. talked to NOAA administrators harvest treatments are available and appealed to their congres for eliminating pathogens so that sional delegations. Subsequently, raw oysters can be safely eaten to ensure regional benefits, but each has drawbacks. Heat Seeking Solutions oyster farmers from Florida to pasteurization kills bacteria but Texas formed an organization can change flavor and texture. n 1997, the struggling committed to studies of two called the Gulf Oyster Industry Low-dose irradiation preserves Gulf Coast oyster oyster parasites that had Council. In 1998, the U.S. flavor and lengthens shelf-life Iindustry made a bold – destroyed East Coast oyster Congress authorized five million but its use with many other foods and unprecedented – decision to stocks. One of these, colloquially dollars for a five-year research has been widely opposed. High- seek solutions to its mounting known as MSX, was not a program aimed at Gulf Coast pressure processing kills vibrios problems through a partnership problem in the Gulf of Mexico. oyster industry problems. but causes the meat to detach with the academic research The other parasite, Dermo, Though explicitly aimed at from the shell. All of these community. A variety of oyster- occurred widely in gulf oysters, regional problems, the Gulf processes kill the harvested related research activities but Gulf Coast oyster producers Oyster Industry Program oysters and add considerable already existed within universi concluded that the variety of (GOIP) is administered through cost to the product. ties across the region, but there issues strangling their industry NOAA’s National Sea Grant In spite of destructive had

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