Highlights

• Grand Isle Jewels launched in April with $140,000 in state funding, marking Louisiana's first regional brand for off-bottom cultivated oysters
• Eight local farmers grow oysters in floating cages off Grand Isle, abandoning traditional seafloor harvesting methods
• Individual oysters sell for $1 each at restaurants, compared to traditional bulk sack pricing
• New Orleans and Lafayette restaurants, including Coquette, Peche, and Vestal Restaurant, now serve these boutique oysters
• Part of broader strategy as Louisiana's $2.4 billion seafood industry adapts to hurricanes and coastal changes

Grand Isle Farmers Launch Premium Oyster Brand

Eight farmers unite under a boutique brand using floating cage cultivation and save Louisiana's oyster industry.

GRAND ISLE, La. (KPEL News) — Eight oyster farmers off Grand Isle have banded together under a new brand called Grand Isle Jewels, and they're growing oysters in floating cages instead of harvesting from the bottom.

According to JEDCO, this marks Louisiana's first regional brand uniting off-bottom oyster cultivation. The farmers suspend their cages in the salty waters off Grand Isle, breaking from 150 years of traditional seafloor harvesting.

What Louisiana Families Need to Know About Grand Isle Jewels

The branding campaign launched in April with $140,000 from the Louisiana Economic Development. The goal: make these cultivated oysters compete with premium brands like Alabama's Murder Point.

Traditional oystermen gather oysters from public and private water bottoms. Grand Isle Jewels farmers manage floating cage systems where oysters get sorted, tumbled, and selected for size and appearance.

"This process helps ensure quality and sustainability in aquaculture," said August McHugh, one of the eight farmers who introduced the brand at Deanie's Seafood in Metairie last week.

The tumbling creates specific characteristics. "If we don't tumble, we get a big flat oyster. We're trying to get an oyster with a deep cut, nice oyster bars — that's what they want," explained Albert 'Buzzy' Besson, who runs the Barataria Beauties brand.

Timeline and Louisiana Market Opportunities

Off-bottom cultivation allows faster, more predictable harvests. "Most of us get seed in July. A fast grower can go to market around Thanksgiving," Besson said.

Louisiana restaurants have embraced the premium product. Grand Isle Jewels now appear at New Orleans spots including Coquette, Fives Bar, Hotel St. Vincent, Maria's Oyster Bar, Mosquito Supper Club, Peche, Seaworthy, and Sidecar Patio & Oyster Bar. In Lafayette: Vestal Restaurant, Spoon Bill Restaurant, Wild Child Wine Shop, Shucks! The Louisiana Seafood House, and Pamplona Tapas & Bar Restaurant.

Nathan Herring brought 180,000 oysters to market last year, selling them for around $1 each. "With this new branding, it will bring a lot of awareness and get into markets that are harder to get into."

What Happens Next for Louisiana's Oyster Industry

Jerry Bologna, JEDCO's executive director, said in media interviews that he wanted to create a boutique-style oyster brand.

"They're going for a different size, different flavor profile," he explained. "It's exciting to work with them because they all have their own independent brand."

But Grand Isle Jewels represents more than marketing. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lists Louisiana's interest in off-bottom oyster cultivation as one way to build industry resilience against threats from sediment diversions.

Off-bottom farming could "help diversify the oyster industry and add a level of sustainability as the industry adjusts to a changing coast," specifically responding to diversions' salinity impacts, the Corps study found. The main advantage: mobility. Floating cages could move in response to low salinity events like diversion openings.

Louisiana's Oyster Industry by the Numbers

JEDCO reports that 45 percent of oysters consumed in North America come from Louisiana waters. The seafood industry generates $2.4 billion annually in Louisiana, supporting one out of every 70 jobs statewide.

Louisiana pulls in 11 million pounds of oysters yearly, outranking all Gulf states and providing 50% of the nation's oyster harvest. But the industry faces challenges from stagnant wages, limited capital access, cheap imports, and repeated hits from hurricanes, the BP oil spill, freshwater intrusion and COVID-19.

The Environmental and Economic Benefits

"Oysters are natural water filters. Each oyster will filter gallons of water daily," McHugh said.

"There's nowhere in the world better suited to grow oysters than Grand Isle, where the sea kisses the estuary," said Besson. "That's why oysters were such a big deal here when my grandfather farmed traditional Grand Isle oysters back in the '50s."

Grand Isle oyster production thrived for over 150 years until the 1980s brought a steady decline. Today, traditional oyster production in Grand Isle remains scarce.

Off-bottom farming gained traction locally over the past five years, growing caged oyster 'seeds' just below the water surface in aquaparks selected for optimal temperature, water flow and salinity. The technique became critical after Hurricane Ida scoured most remaining wild oyster habitat from the barrier island in 2021.

Jefferson Parish Councilman Scott Walker emphasized the broader significance: "Not only do we have great shrimp and great fish, but we've got great oysters. Oysters in Louisiana, particularly these Grand Isle Jewels, are fantastic. They speak to the overall value of our seafood industry to the state."

Want to see some other Louisiana brands that have gone international? Here are some names that are definitely familiar.