NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- As Thanksgiving nears, consumers with a taste for oyster soup and oyster dressing with their holiday meal are discovering the delectable shellfish are in shorter supply and still expensive since the Gulf oil spill last year, but not enough to keep them off Louisiana Thanksgiving tables.
Oyster harvesters took a bashing last year during the Gulf oil spill when much of the crop was killed off in coastal waters of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Now the crop is even more depressed because of freshwater intrusion from the Mississippi River flooding this summer.
Mike Voisin, owner of an oyster processing and sales business southwest of New Orleans, said oyster production in Louisiana is down by more than 50 percent and prices for oysters are up roughly 10 percent from last year.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
