Gulf oyster lovers may have to suck it up and settle for oysters from other regions to get their fix.

What's considered the largest red tide outbreak in the state since 2000 has postponed indefinitely the opening of the Texas oyster season. And without a break in the drought to flush the waterways, the season could be wiped out.

“This is a major blow. It's bad,” said Buddy Treybig, the owner of Arnold's Seafood Processing Plant in Matagorda, who has been told the red tide bloom is getting worse, not better. “There's going to be a lot of smaller companies that won't survive, not just if they're in the oyster business.”

Oystering on private leases in Texas already had been closed for weeks, but Wednesday the Texas Department of State Health Services banned harvesting of oysters, clams and mussels along the Texas coast until further notice.

The public harvest season was scheduled to open Tuesday. When it will reopen depends on how quickly the Karenia brevis alga that causes the outbreak disappears.

“They say, hopefully, it won't be long. Maybe before Thanksgiving,” said Lisa Halili, whose family owns Prestige Oysters in San Leon. “Nobody knows, and I don't want to rush them. I want them to do it right.”

The season runs through April 30.

The algae that cause red tide contain a toxin that can accumulate in the tissue of oysters, clams and other shellfish, the health services department said. That toxin causes neurotoxic shellfish poisoning when consumers eat contaminated oysters.

Symptoms of the poisoning include nausea, dizziness, dilated pupils and a tingling sensation in the extremities, a news release said.

The toxin, when carried by the air, can cause coughing and irritation of the throat and eyes.

The algae don't harm oysters but do kill fish. In an estimate last week, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said 3 million fish had been killed by red tide along the Texas coast this year.

With oystering in Texas suspended, seafood producers and restaurants will look to fisheries in other states to make up the difference.

Rick Groomer, president of Groomer Seafood in San Antonio, said waters off western Louisiana are the only portion of the Gulf of Mexico where oysters are currently available, but that may not last long.

He said he may have to turn to oysters from Washington state and Oregon — something he's done only once before, after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

His experience then was that some Gulf oyster fans did not like the flavor of the West Coast substitutes, but he may not have a choice.

The price on Gulf coast oysters has increased by about 35 percent as the red tide worsened over the last month, Groomer said. He said oysters got even costlier after the BP spill reduced the shellfish count last year, but other industry representatives don't expect current prices to escalate much more.

“I don't think the market will support it,” said Clifford Hillman, who owns Hillman Shrimp & Oyster Co. in Dickinson and Port Lavaca.

Texas oysters once were the second-largest seafood commodity in Texas before 2008's Hurricane Ike destroyed thousands of acres of reef and production was cut in half.

In 2009, Parks and Wildlife estimates about 2.7 million pounds of oysters was harvested in Texas, worth about $9.4 million.

Hillman said last year was a good year for oysters, and he has enough product in stock to fill contracts through the beginning of 2012. Still, Hillman said he cut four people from his staff Wednesday instead of boosting staff to prepare for the Texas oyster season.

The red tide could dissipate with enough rain and fresh water flowing into the bays to reduce the water's algae-boosting salinity levels, he said. Even with the water cleared of red tide, it could take several more weeks for the algae to wash out of the oysters' systems, officials said.

“Just pray for rain, brother, that's all we can do — and lots of it,” said Hillman.