Galveston Bay and Texas Oyster Appellations

Christmas and Thanksgiving with my family always includes Scalloped Oysters: baked oysters with milk, butter, crackers like Beaumont Inn's recipe. My mother absolutely loves oysters: fried, grilled, scalloped, raw-not so much, but never had Galveston Bay oysters until she moved to Texas. 

My only taste (more of a swallow) of an oyster was outside of Savannah, Georgia at some renowned fresh seafood place with my coworkers. I did not get the point since all I tasted was the cracker and the cocktail sauce, and that little live creature disappeared down my throat, and those that bit into it hated it. Maybe if it was from the right reef, I would enjoy them?

Each appellation (reef) in Galveston Bay has its on variety of oyster and all are the same species, Crassostrea virginica (aka Gulf Coast oyster, eastern oyster, american oyster). It filter feeds on a veggie diet of plankton and algae from 3-6 gallons of saltwater per hour.

Like wine, so goes the oyster. It depends on where it grows and feeds on. When classifying the umami taste of oysters judged them by briny, crisp, pungent, creamy, sweet, earthy, metallic, or nutty. Galveston Bay oysters are grown in high salinity waters with crinkled bill, that are double the size and firmness as east coast oysters. Careful on the raw ones because they may ingest pollutants.

Ask your local restaurant which reef your oyster comes from (like Tommy's of Clear Lake City or The Reef of Houston), and see if you can taste the difference.

East Bay Reefs (Appellations)

1. Stephenson Point
2. Drum Village #1
3. Pepper Grove, (bright and salty)
4. Elm Grove
5. Hannah
6. Whitehead
7. Ladies Pass
8. Bull Hill
9. Tom Tom
10. Sheldon
11. South Redfish

Trinity Bay Reefs

12. Possum Pass
13. Hawkins Camp
14. Smith Pass
15. Hodges
16. Lonesome
17. Lone Oak (creamy, briny sweetness)
18. Old Yellow
19. Lost
20. Found # 1

Galveston Bay Reefs near Dickinson Bay

21. Todd's Dump
22. Resignation

Matagorda Bay Reefs

San Antonio Bay Reefs (Texas Gulf Coast Oysters)

• Chicken Foot
• Panther

Copano Bay Reefs (Aransas Bay oyster reefs nearly all killed in 1960s from a parasite)

FARMING

Public commercial oyster season, and recreational harvest (2 bushels of 3 inch or larger per day) runs from November 1 to April 30.

• 22,760 acres of public reefs to harvest in Texas
• 2,321 acres of private oyster leases in Galveston Bay

If the water gets below 40°F, they close their shells until the water warms up. They can survival in waters up to 86°F with a salinity range of 10 to 30 parts per thousand, and can tolerate salinities 2 ppt and more than 40 ppt. 

LIFE CYCLE

Spawning occurs when waters are above 68° F. The egg develops into free-swimming larvae for 3 weeks that change into a small oyster called a spat. Spat will attach themselves to many types of hard material (cultch) but prefer mollusk shells and grow 1 inch in 3 months or 3 inches (legal market size) in 15-20 months.

Oysters can reach sexual maturity in 4 weeks after attachment, maturing as males and changing to females after spawning. Changes of sexes continues throughout life (protandric).

View a map by The Texas Coastal Watershed Program of Texas A&M University