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THE SEA COAST ECHO • HANCOCK TODAY
THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 2000 « 31
Shrimp & oyster seasons headed for record books
BY GEOFF BELCHER News Editor
Hancock County and the Mississippi Gulf Coast have experienced unprecedented growth since the advent of the casinos, but the area is also known for a much-older industry: seafood.
The shrimp and oysters of the Mississippi Sound and the Gulf of Mexico are prized around the country, and their sale is a major component of Hancock County’s economy.
This year’s shrimp season began June 1, and early indications are that the shrimp this year are bigger and better than ever, according to Kirk Ladner, whose family operates Terry’s Seafood, off Shipyard Road at Bayou Caddy.
And the 1999-2000 oyster season broke a record that has stood since 1968. The season, which closed at noon on June 26, was deemed “highly successful” according to a statement released last week by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (DMR). The season ended with a record 411,300 sacks of oysters being landed since the season opened September 23, 1999.
And that really helps the local economy, since each sack holds about 250 oysters at an average of about $13 a sack — generating an estimated $5,346,000.
"The season has been highly successful due to a lot of hard work by many groups and individuals, along with environmental conditions favorable to continuous harvest,” DMR Shellfish Program Coordinator Scott Gordon said in a press release.
According to DMR researchers, the 1999-2000 oyster season was successful because of the following
factors:
•	Flexibility granted by the Mississippi legislature to the Commission on Marine Resources in managing the oyster reefs;
•	Cooperation between the DMR and personnel at the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in analyzing water quality samples and mapping the oyster reefs,
•	Cooperation with members of the oyster industry in selecting and planting clutch material to establish additional oyster reefs, and
•	Drought conditions during the past year.
In 1997, about $1 million of federal disaster funds were used to replenish existing oyster reefs, as well as establish new reefs. A large part of this year's record production came from the reefs created by the 1997 shell plant project.
Drought conditions played an important part in the record by keeping closures of the reefs, due to excessive rainfall and river staging, to a minimum. As a result of the reefs staying open more, oyster fishermen were allowed to harvest almost all season long.
Gordon also credits the success of the record-breaking season to the Commission on Marine Resources for making often-difficult management decisions and the hard working oyster harvesters who made their daily trips to the reefs to ensure that consumers always had oysters on their plates.
In May, DMR crews spent additional emergency-relief funds creating and adding to oyster reefs just south of Bayou Caddy and at the Square Handkerchief section of Henderson Point.
Echo staff photo by Donna J. Smith
Shrimpers were out early for the start of the season on June 1.
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DMR crews move oyster shells into the Mississippi Sound in May to create new oyster reefs and boost production.
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