BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A boat captain has lost his oyster licenses until 2026 for taking the bivalves from a polluted area that had been closed by Louisiana’s health department.
Captain Nelson Williams III, 45, and deckhand James Garrison, 39, both of Port Sulphur, pleaded guilty to that charge lastThursday in Plaquemines Parish, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said Sunday.
Because oysters feed by filtering water, those in polluted waters can accumulate harmful chemicals and unsafe levels of harmful bacteria.
Judge Kevin Connor revoked Williams’ oyster seed ground permit and his oyster harvester, oyster scraper, and recreational and commercial oyster tong licenses until 2026, according to a department news release. Connor also fined Williams $900 and Garrison $200.
If Williams works on any boat processing oysters or possessing gear to take oysters, that vessel must have a vessel monitoring system that is tracked by the department's enforcement division, the statement said.
The department said fisheries agents using a drone in the area of Two Sisters Bayou on Dec. 29 saw a boat dredging for oysters in a polluted area. Agents also found that Williams had falsified his state health department logbook and that the boat did not meet sanitation standards for an oyster vessel, the news release said.
Agents returned five sacks of oysters to the water.