The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department will open several bays to commercial and recreational oyster harvest beginning at 12:01 a.m. Nov. 2, the agency announced.
According to an Oct. 23 TPWD news release, the department collects samples before the shellfish harvesting season to determine which harvest areas open at the start of the oyster season. Factors evaluated include whether certain thresholds are met for the abundance of legal-sized oysters, which are 3 inches or greater.
Robin Riechers, director of TPWD’s Coastal Fisheries Division, said in the release that balancing the conservation of oyster resources with fishing opportunities for the commercial industry is important for the industry and for Texas’ reefs, both now and in the future.
After evaluating pre-season samples, four of the areas opened met the threshold, the agency said. Four additional areas had relatively high abundance of market oysters on select reefs but did not meet the opening threshold overall because some reefs had lower abundance. Two more areas were not sampled but will also open Nov. 2, according to the release, which noted that those areas typically do not have any commercial oyster harvest. Opening them will provide more fishing opportunities and better distribute the fleet when the 2026-2027 season begins, TPWD said.
The areas opening to public harvest Nov. 2 are TX-1 and TX-5 in Galveston Bay; TX-13, TX-19 and TX-20 in Matagorda Bay; TX-29, TX-30 and TX-32 in Aransas Bay; TX-33 in Corpus Christi Bay; and TX-34 in the Lower Laguna Madre. TPWD said TX-1, TX-13, TX-19 and TX-20 are opening below the current opening threshold to provide additional harvest opportunities and to avoid the fleet concentrating in one or two areas.
All other harvest areas will be closed to public harvest beginning at 12:01 a.m. Nov. 2, the release said. TPWD Coastal Fisheries staff will continue monitoring all harvest areas and will open or close areas as their respective thresholds are met. A map of oyster harvesting areas, along with current status information for each area, is available on the Texas Department of State Health Services website, according to the agency.