Texas Fauna Project

Eastern Oyster

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Lynn Benefield worked for the Coastal Fisheries Division of Texas Parks and Wildlife from 1966 through 2001, and was responsible for overseeing both oil and gas development and oyster dredging in the bays. Here he describes the situations where oystermen would harvest oysters from well pads on the bay bottoms, and sometimes hang their dredge on a pipeline, tearing it, and releasing oil and/or gas to the bay.