PASS CHRISTIAN – Seafood dealers say you can’t beat the view at the new Pass Christian Harbor, but business is off to a rocky start.

Seafood dealer Darlene Kimball tells The Sun Herald the process for an oysterman to transfer his catch from water to land can take up to five times as long as is it did at the old harbor, because oyster-checking protocol still has to be performed at the old harbor location.

Before the move, Kimball, who owns Kimball’s Seafood, said she would have oysters paid for and off the boat within five to 10 minutes of boats coming in from the reefs.

“Sometimes it takes 30 to 40 minutes before I get oysters off a boat,” Kimball said.

Although dealers were relocated to the new harbor, the Department of Marine Resources oyster check station is still in the old harbor. The $1 million Col. George J. Wright Sr. building was built in 2012. DMR moved in October, said spokeswoman Melissa Scallan.

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