Louisiana oyster specialist retires, plans work in Alabama
GRAND ISLE, La. (AP) — An oyster specialist has retired after more than a quarter-century with Louisiana Sea Grant, and says he will continue research with a private company he co-owns in Alabama.
John Supan says in a Sea Grant news release that his business, Navy Cove Oyster Co. LLC, works with both LSU and Auburn University.
Supan started with Sea Grant in 1984 as an area fisheries agent, and has been executive secretary-treasurer of the Louisiana Oyster Dealers and Growers Association since 1985.
He's been working in recent years on oysters with extra sets of chromosomes that make them sterile so they stay fat in the summer rather than losing up to half their body mass to producing eggs or sperm.