According to Texas authorities, at least 60% of the oyster reefs in Galveston Bay have been destroyed by the effects of Hurricane Ike. Reefs have been covered by debris and sediment churned up by the storm, and grass and other vegetation scoured from Bolivar now blanket reefs in East Bay. Similar impacts have been reported from coastal Louisiana. Combined, Texas and Louisiana produce 60% of the total domestic oyster supply in the U.S.

From the perspective of bird conservation, there are a number of issues to be considered. First, the impact on oyster reefs by Ike is evidence of much broader damage to the bay system in general. According to Houston Audubon Society’s Winnie Burkett, North Deer Island (the largest natural island left in the bay, and home to 40,000 birds of 17 different species) lost a third of its vegetation. Because of debris, Audubon Society members have not been able to get a boat to Evia Island (an island constructed of dredge materials) that, in 2001, was home to 3,000 birds, including terns, Black Skimmers, and Brown Pelicans. How these colonial nesters will fare once breeding season arrives (and many return from wintering in south Texas and Mexico) remains to be seen.

Second, what about specialists such as the American Oystercatcher that depends on healthy oyster populations for their survival? The oystercatcher has never been common in the Galveston Bay system, with this isolated population never exceeding (in my opinion) a couple of hundred individual birds. Combined with the direct impacts of the storm surge on their breeding beaches, what are the remaining oystercatchers going to eat as the bay slowly recovers from Ike’s insults?

Finally, we are all optimistic that the oyster population will recover with time. But what if their situation is further compromised by expanded resort development on the west end of the island? For example, the pending Marquette project proposes thousands of new homes on the west end, each with boats and their accouterments (canals, marinas, boat houses). Each boat in Galveston Bay will churn up additional sediments that are already suffocating these reefs. The USACE is now considering a request for a comprehensive environmental impact study concerning any additional development on Galveston’s west end. To ignore Ike’s impacts, I believe, would be unpardonable. Ike is the third most damaging hurricane in American history, and all involved in west end development, particularly the USACE, must recognize that fact.

See more about the plight of Galveston Bay oysters in this Houston Chronicle article. Also, read the testimony from the Galveston Bay Foundation at a recent legislative meeting in Galveston addressing these same issues. Finally, you can send your comments about the proposed Marquette project to the ACOE at their website. Please ask that the Corps conduct a cumulative environmental impact analysis on further development (including Marquette and Anchor Bay) on Galveston Island.

Ted Eubanks