(U-WIRE) BATON ROUGE, La. — These days, oysters are almost as rare as the shiny pearls that hide inside them.

Hurricane Katrina had drastic impacts on the Louisiana seafood staple. And John Supan, a Louisiana State University adjunct professor, is researching ways to not only increase oyster populations but make them meatier year round.

Although 75 percent of the state’s public fishing grounds were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, Supan is trying repopulate the state’s marshy coast with the once-thriving mollusk.

Supan, the University’s own oyster guru, said much of this land was home to prime oysteries.

Louisiana produces more oysters than any other state in the nation. An average of 13 million pounds of meat is harvested each year, said Patrick Banks, Oyster Program Manager for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Banks said the oysters are a $300 million-a-year industry for the state.

“Obviously when Katrina hit, it went right through the heart of our oyster industry,” Supan said.

Public fishing grounds are swampy areas identified by the state where anyone with a fishing license can harvest. Oyster fisherman harvest “seed” oysters here and take them back to their own leases. The leases are privately owned fishing areas rented from the state, so the oysters can grow larger. Market-size mollusks are sold immediately. Leases were hit particularly hard by Katrina, Supan said.

Supan is working to create a new breed of oysters that can be harvested by fishermen and sold to the public year-round.

“I’ve been looking at a new way of growing oysters and producing ones that Mother Nature can’t,” Supan said.

Supan said he has found a way to make oysters plump in summer, a season during which oysters have the least meat in their shells. Oysters spawn in warm months, which burns off winter fat.

“At our hatchery we make an oyster that is sexually sterile and can’t spawn,” Supan said.

These genetically enhanced oysters are triploids, which contain three sets of chromosomes instead of two. Supan said his lab is able to produce millions of larvae by crossing triploids with normal oysters.

Supan said inadequate sewage treatment in small coastal communities where most oyster fisheries are located also plays a role in oyster decline.

“Over decades, water quality — good or bad — affects oyster life,” he said.

Banks said the oyster industry is recovering from the damage.

“There were a lot of areas that produce oysters that weren’t hit quite as hard,” he said. “Things look promising today.”

Banks said fishermen have recently started to see more recruitment, which is the process young animals go through to establish their niche in the ecosystem.

“Basically, it’s when babies are born, have survived the initial level of mortality expected and are now part of the population,” Banks said.

“The oysters that were born right after Katrina are just now reaching market size.”

This makes them able to be put on the market.

Supan is working with the Grand Isle Port Commission to set up an aquaculture station where these oysters can be harvested by fishermen.

Wayne Keller, executive director of the port commission, said the process has been in the works for more than three years.

Keller said the station will give oyster fishermen easier access to the mollusks and will hopefully improve their hauls.

“One of the reasons we’re participating is because it’s a way for private citizens without big oyster boats to be able to grow oysters,” Keller said.

Supan said these oysters will be grown off the ocean floor bottom to enhance their marketability.

“It’s been long known that oysters that are grown off the bottom grow fatter and faster than others,” Supan said.