The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) will close its last open area for recreational and commercial oyster harvesting in Galveston Bay at midnight.
The closure comes just over a week before public oyster harvest season ends on April 30.
TPWDannounced the closurelast week after determining there weren't enough legal-sized oysters —oysters three inches or greater — in the arealocated on the east side of Galveston Bay.Thetwo other public oyster harvest areas in Galveston Bay closedearlier this year.
Harvest area closures can occur after the area has been overharvested, but can also be driven by environmental impacts such as flooding and drought, which negatively impact oyster populations, according to previousHouston Public Mediareporting. In this closure case, the area had experienced overharvesting.
Despite the harvest closures, Christine Jensen, the ecosystem leader for Galveston Bay with TWPD,said this year's oyster season was better than past years.
"Galveston Bay’s kind of been the center of the oyster harvest almost all season, and it’s been unusual in the past decade for Galveston Bay to remain open the entire season," Jensen said. "We almost made it to the end of the season, but not quite."
Despite a better-performing year, the vice president of oyster wholesalerJeri’s Seafood,Justin Woody, said public oyster harvest area closures point to a wider need for oyster restoration in the bay.
"The public reef in the past — I’d say since Hurricane Ike — has really went downhill. I mean ... nobody in the business can keep a business running off public reef," Woody said.
Woody emphasized the importance of private leasing efforts for oyster harvesting, known as a certificate of location, where someone can lease portions of the bottom of the bay to restore reefs in that area. Woody said these efforts would, in turn, increase the acreage of productive oyster reefs in the Galveston Bay.
Applications for the certificate of location program were closed in November 2025 and have been reviewed, according to Woody, who said 50 applications were already accepted for areas along Texas coastal waters.
Galveston Bay will only be open to private harvesting starting April 30.Jensen said this break from public harvesting will allow the area to rest and recover so that it can be harvested again next year when public harvesting opens up again in November.
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