The Texas Parks and Wildlife Departmentclosed an area dedicated to commercial and recreational oyster harvesting in Galveston Bay starting on Feb. 14, after the department determined there weren't enough legal-sized oysters, oysters that are three inches or greater, in the area.
The closure leaves just two out of eight designated areas open in the Galveston Bay for commercial and recreational harvesting and comes at a time when federal and state officials, as well as local oyster farmers, continue to push for oyster restoration across Texas.
While oyster harvest area closures can affect those who rely on them, such as an independent fisherman, it’s a necessary move to protect the oyster population, according to Regional Director for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Kelley Kowal.
Kowal said closures happen after the area has been harvested a lot, but can also be driven by environmental impacts such as flooding and drought, which negatively impact oyster populations.
Back in 2024,Galveston County Judge Mark Henry issued adisaster declarationfor the area's oyster industry after flooding devastated oyster numbers, according to previousHouston Public Mediareporting. In 2008, Hurricane Ike also damaged oyster habitat in Galveston Bay to the point that oyster harvesting on the eastern side of the bay wasclosed for two years.
Before 2008, Galveston Bay brought in 90% of the oyster production in Texas, approximately six million pounds, but since that time, it has not topped more than 3.5 million pounds in a year, according to theGalveston Bay Foundation.
Vice President of oyster wholesalerJeri's Seafood,Justin Woody, said the recent oyster harvest closure in Galveston Bay points to a wider need for drastic oyster restoration across Texas.
"Oysters are like the canary in the coal mine for the bays,” Woody said. “The healthier and the more abundant they are, the healthier your bays are, and the fewer and the less abundant they are, the less healthy.They’re the foundation. They’re a keystone species in the bay."
Woody said oyster production in Texas falls behind states such as Louisiana. He's worried that if Texas doesn't make drastic efforts to restore oyster reefs soon, there won't be any left to produce.
Woody said one restoration solution was private leasing efforts, where someone canlease portions of the bottom of the bay from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to restore reefs in that area, which would increase the acreage of productive oyster reefs in the Galveston Bay.
Applications for the Certificate of Location program were accepted through November 2025 and are currently being reviewed.
Since oyster shells are a preferred place for baby oysters to settle and grow, another restoration effort is recycling oyster shells, something theGalveston Bay Foundationplays a big part in.
"We work with about 40 restaurants in the Houston, Clear Lake, and [the] Galveston region and we take the used oyster shell from these restaurants, we collect it and we cure it on site for about six months and then we put that same shell back into Galveston Bay for habitat," said Sally Clark, director of habitat restoration at Galveston Bay Foundation.
"We get oyster growth. We’ve been doing really well, and the reefs are thriving with adult oysters growing,” Clark said. “However, the pace just needs to be quickened. We need to get more acres built and more substrate in the water.”
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials say they will continue to keep an eye on all closed harvest areas and reopen them when they meet the criteria thresholds.
Copyright 2026 Houston Public Media News 88.7