Days after the opening of oyster season, mature populations of the bivalve mollusk seem most robust in the state’s southern waterways, from Sneads Ferry to Stump Sound, said officials with the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.
North of Sneads Ferry, particularly in the western part of Pamlico Sound, oyster populations are struggling to recover from Hurricane Irene, which piled dirt and grass on top of the rocky beds.
“We had a lot of impacts from the hurricane,” said Craig Hardy, chief of the agency’s resource enhancement section. “There was a lot of debris and marsh grass that covered the rocks, and I think some of those were smothered.
“I don’t think there was that kind of impact down south.”
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