Misho Ivic: San Leon, Texas

Texas is home to some of the last and most productive wild oyster beds in the country, thanks in large part to Misho Ivic, the founder of Misho’s Seafood in San Leon. In 1988, Ivic helped lead the charge to convince Texas oystermen to approve a self-imposed tax to expand reef building, a program that continues today. “The reefs we’re building in Galveston Bay are extremely productive,” he says. “We just need a decent rainy year.” Population booms upstream and a severe drought have meant decreasing amounts of freshwater reaching the bays from Texas’s rivers, triggering red tide algae blooms and threatening  oysters overall. So Ivic and other producers have been lobbying lawmakers, trying to make politicians understand the need to keep freshwater flowing into the bays. And it’s not just about oysters. “Healthy reefs benefit all marine life,” Ivic says. “If you choke them, it all dies.”