Interesting article, but here is my take....  
Having recently sat in separate lectures on the topic by: The Galveston Bay
Foundation, and TAMU Harte Research Inst.  (local experts), plus my own
historic knowledge having lived here through it, vs. the writing of a
foreign activist with an agenda.  The Fisheries history in Texas is much
more complicated.

Keeping mind Texas bays only have muck and some sand as substrate, and
oyster reefs require hard substrate, the primary enemies of a healthy oyster
industry in Texas are as follows:  Repeated freshwater inundation at the
wrong times, silting, sustained hard-freezes, over harvesting, and a lack of
reef restoration.  Reef restoration efforts have only started in the last
few years.   Oyster harvesting  is regulated (in part) by the the Texas
Dept. of Health, who determines where it is safe to harvest and produces the
annual safe-harvest maps, e.g. no near-shore or shallow collecting.  

Some mischaracterizations in the article:  "U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement didn't exist". False!  It's just a new name from the DHS
reorganization post 911.  "Enforcement didn't exist"... Immigration was not
as big of an issue 35~50 years ago, e.g. - a steady trickle which was
economically healthy, so it was much more lax, but I still saw plenty of
Immigration raids in the 80s.

"recent Vietnamese immigrants", recent?  That was primarily in the late
1970's.  There was a literal war in the Texas-Louisiana fishing industry
over this.  Politics aside, the problems it created were displacement of
existing fishermen in the industry, then large scale unlawful harvesting
practices, [the gov. funded them up into this industry without fully
educating them on regulations and sustainable practices, or they choose to
ignore them] in an already stressed industry due to fuel cost and a weak
economy; Thus undermining the entire NW Gulf fishing industry.

Entire oyster reefs were harvested - wiped out, and overfishing in all other
fisheries as well.  With a whole extended immigrant family to work the boat
and process the catch, they were energetically trying to survive, so the
old-timers could not compete.  In these hungry new immigrants did near-shore
collecting in mass also.  My favorite oyster-reef in Galveston Bay was
picked-clean and has never recovered.  Most other Molluscs in this area were
also harvested clean.   

These practices caused price drops in an already stressed industry, forcing
bankruptcy for a lot of multi-generation fisher families.  Long term is
created shortages.  It took a many years for the industry to reach
equilibrium again.  

Closing:  I avoid farm raised seafood such as shrimp and tilapia.
Why?  Typical Farm Configuration:  Pigs top floor, Chickens 2nd floor,
Seafood bottom floor, ...and they only fed the pigs.
Shrimp farm-raised in Texas is an exception to these practices.

Les

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