Oystermen in Mississippi are working to rebuild the state’s oyster population by relocating the mollusks to cleaner waters.
Fishermen teamed up with the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources to move tens of thousands of oysters, beginning at dawn at the Pascagoula Causeway Reef in Jackson County, according to reports.
For the first three days of the effort, fishermen were limited to hand tongs to harvest oysters. After that, tongs and hand-retrieved dredges were allowed until this year’s quota of 18,864 sacks was reached. State specifications require dredges to be retrieved by hand. There is no daily limit, but a single trip is capped at 20 sacks whether using tongs or a dredge.