Texas Oyster Harvesting Season Opens Nov. 2

Texas Oyster Harvesting Season Opens Nov. 2

Oct. 23, 2026

Media Contact: TPWD News, Business Hours, 512-389-8030

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AUSTIN - The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is opening several bays to commercial and recreational oyster harvest, beginning at12:01 a.m. Monday, Nov. 2.

To establish which harvest areas will be open at the beginning of the oyster season in Texas, TPWD collects samples prior to the shellfish harvesting season. The factors evaluated include reaching certain thresholds based on the abundance of legal-sized oysters (3-inches or greater).

"Maintaining the balance of conserving oyster resources with fishing opportunities for the commercial industry is important for the industry and for Texas' reefs both now and for the future." said Robin Riechers, TPWD's Coastal Fisheries Division Director.

After evaluating pre-season oyster samples, four of the areas opened met the threshold and four additional TX areas had relatively high abundance of market oysters on select reefs but did not meet the opening threshold overall due to the presence of reefs with lower abundance. Harvest areas TX-1 and TX-5 in Galveston Bay; TX-13, TX-19 and TX-20 in Matagorda Bay; TX-29, TX-30 and TX-32 in Aransas Bay will be open for harvest on Nov. 2. TX-33 in Corpus Christi Bay and TX-34 in the Lower Laguna Madre were not sampled but will also open Nov. 2. These areas typically do not have any commercial oyster harvest. Opening these TX areas will provide more fishing opportunities and better distribute the fleet when the 2026-2027 season begins.

The following shellfish harvesting areas will be open to public harvest beginning Nov. 2:

Galveston Bay

TX-1*

TX-5

Matagorda Bay

TX-13*

TX-19*

TX-20*

Aransas Bay

TX-29

TX-30

TX-32

Corpus Christi Bay

TX-33

Lower Laguna Madre

TX-34

Oyster areas marked with an asterisk (*) are opening below the current opening threshold to provide additional harvest opportunities and to avoid the fleet concentrating in one or two areas.

All other harvest areas not listed above will be closed to public harvest beginning at 12:01 a.m. Nov. 2.

TPWD's Coastal Fisheries staff will continue monitoring all harvest areas and will open or close areas based on when respective thresholds are met.

A map showing oyster harvesting areas, as well as the most up-to-date status information on each area, can be found on the Texas Department of State Health Services website.