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DMR outlines sealed third‑party grading for on‑bottom oyster lease applications amid fishermen protests
Summary
The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources said it has sent 61 on‑bottom lease applications to a third‑party grader with applicant names redacted; commercial fishermen at the meeting objected to private leasing of historic public reef bottoms and sought legislative remedies.
Director Joe Spraggins, director of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, told commissioners on Feb. 12 that the agency has moved to a third‑party scoring process for on‑bottom (historic natural bottom) oyster lease applications and that applicant identities were redacted before review.
Spraggins said the Department received 61 applications and is negotiating a contract with a group in Jackson to grade the submissions. "They're sealed ... and they're going to grade it with the names redacted," Spraggins said, explaining the agency’s intent to avoid any appearance of favoritism. "I did that on purpose because I don't want to know." He added that if graders have follow‑up questions they will be asked by a different team within the contractor and returned to the graders for scoring.
The director described grading criteria that will evaluate applicants’ past cultivation and financial ability to operate on the bottoms, and said the Department separated financial review from technical scoring: an outside accounting firm will handle the finance portions while the contracted third party will assess culture and harvest capabilities. Spraggins said the agency will offer leases in rank order to the highest‑scoring applicant for each parcel and that staff are negotiating the grading contract as of the meeting.
Commercial oystermen and industry representatives used the public‑comment period to urge the commission and the legislature to block or roll back private leasing of public oyster bottoms. James Miller of D'Iberville told the commission, "You're taking our land from us," criticizing the planned leasing and saying crew members and small license holders were not represented among applicants. John Livings of "Pascrestam" (as stated in the record) asked whether the agency would preserve an 18,000‑sack cap and pressed staff to reconsider the Pearl River stage used to trigger closures.
Ryan Bradley, executive director of Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United, said the organization and most of Mississippi’s commercial oyster fishermen oppose private leasing of historic natural bottom reefs. "The majority of Mississippi's commercial oyster fishermen ... continue to oppose the private leasing of our historic natural bottom public oyster reefs," Bradley said, and he identified two bills (HB 1102 and SB 2263) that his group supports to address the issue in the Legislature. Bradley and other commenters said many working fishermen will not meet the financial stability criteria in the statute and urged either repeal or rollback of the leasing law.
Agency staff and the director told the commission they paused DMR grading earlier after reviewing initial criteria and applications and then reconfigured the process to add third‑party reviewers and an accounting firm. Jason Bridal, a marine fisheries staff member who presented harvest and sampling data, described state sampling concentrated on reefs that the Legislature designated as state‑owned under recent statutory changes and noted that the department had not sampled outside those priority areas in 2023–24.
Spraggins acknowledged the strength of public feeling and reiterated the department’s limited discretion under current law, saying he will follow statutory direction and that changes should come through the Legislature if stakeholders want a different approach. He also said he has argued internally and with lawmakers over how much of the bottoms the state can retain and how to structure lease obligations.
Looking ahead, Spraggins said staff will continue negotiations with the third‑party graders in Jackson and with the accounting firm handling financial reviews; he did not give a timetable for when lease offers will be made. Several commenters asked for transparency about applicants; Spraggins said he could not provide names until the sealed review process is complete and the department had no list to release at the meeting.
The meeting record shows no final commission action or vote on leases at this meeting; the commission heard updates and public comments and directed staff to continue the procurement and review process.
