ARE YOU AWARE OF THE MATAGORDA DREDGING THAT IS ABOUT TO TAKE PLACE THIS SUMMER?
About 800 acres of reef will be destroyed because of the Matagorda ship channel dredging. This is located in Area...
I get that, but is the relocation etc realistic or feasible?
I don't think so. There is more to an oyster reef than just dumping baby oysters out on the mud or sand bottom of the bay. There have been other man made reefs that have been placed in our bay that either sunk into the muddy bottom or were covered up with silt. My opinion, and this is just me and I am no oyster expert, is a better option is to find suitable locations and place the hard substrate (limestone, concrete, harvested shell, etc) needed for a reef to grow naturally. You don't really have to worry about saving all the baby oysters. There are billions of baby oysters set adrift on the tide every year when the oysters spawn. They just need a suitable place to latch on and grow.
I feel like trying to stop the dredging project is probably an exercise in futility. I doubt it'll be stopped. I doubt it would make sense to try to relocate reefs. I think you'd find the best bang for the buck would be to set the hard base materials needed to start new reefs in other areas to make up for the destroyed reefs and let nature take it's course on seeding them.
I get that, but is the relocation etc realistic or feasible?
No......waste of time and money, dredging is going to “stir” up stuff that should be left alone (toxic) to marine life, If GLO would approve “us” to create private reefs again, it would be a utopia for rec fishermen, GLO holds the bag, another useless agency
They could not do it, but then people would complain when the plants shut down that need that dredging for the ships to come in. Sometimes you dont like the consequences but it’s still needed.
The reefs in question were made when the channel was originally built . Does it suck , yeah it does . Maxmid stream is footing a lot of the bill . For a little bit I thought the process would be slowed down a bit . They are in tied up on some lawsuits over defrauding investors over the project. They failed to mention to the investors it was a superfund sight . If I remember right they are dredging to 48 ft deep from the original 36ft . Actually it’s at 34 now . Also going to double the width . To allow two ships to pass in the channel .
We saw how the dredging worked for Galveston. they put a fish eating advisory on most of the bay from the mercury they stirred up. But what are you going to do, we need that Chinese junk dropped off somewhere.
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