More Private Oyster Leases May Be Answer to Fight Over Galveston Bay Seabed
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Victoria Advocate] By Sara Sneath - April 27, 2015 -
SEADRIFT, A fight over 23,000 acres of sea bottom in Galveston Bay has the state reconsidering how the commercial oyster industry should operate in the future.
At issue is a lease signed by the Chambers-Liberty Counties Navigation District, giving Tracy Woody and his father-in-law, Ben Nelson, the sole ability to harvest oysters in 23,000 acres of Galveston Bay.
A bill that would validate their lease was subsequently filed and is stuck in committee. But the fight at the Capitol has both sides of the debate agreeing that more private leases might be part of the solution to an industry that's been wrecked by hurricanes and drought.
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