# Apalachicola closed the oyster harvest



## dhsnke (Jul 27, 2020)

I was in Panama city last week and the news said Apalachicola closed all harvesting of oysters until 2025.


----------



## Browning Slayer (Jul 27, 2020)

https://www.npr.org/2020/07/22/8940...e's nobody harvesting any oysters right now."


----------



## Nicodemus (Jul 27, 2020)

Yep, last Thursday, I believe. A way of life gone literally, like the mullet fishermen.


----------



## Cmp1 (Jul 27, 2020)

Love me some oysters, unless they're from Tampa,,,,


----------



## mamatried (Jul 28, 2020)

Sad. Seems like the shutdown was bound to happen sooner than later.  Hopefully it will only take 5 years for a rebound. Time will tell. You can still get oysters from the gulf just not from the Apalachicola bay. Had some from the Apalachee Bay two weeks ago and they were good.


----------



## Buckstop (Aug 3, 2020)

Sorry to hear that. Hopefully they will see some improvement, but I wouldn't hold my breath. It doesn't sound like an over fishing problem but a water quality problem.  We have had a similar water quality issue in the Indian River lagoon in E Cent FL and a total collapse of the clam fishery here 20 years ago.

Unfortunately, if there is an improvement in five years, there may be very few that still have licenses to harvest, as RS endorsements require a certain $ amount or percentage of income come from seafood sales to qualify for renewal.  Its a Catch 22, as unless the local fisherman can find an alternate fishery in the interim, many will be out with no way to re-enter the fishery by then


----------



## Nicodemus (Aug 3, 2020)

Slowly vanishing. Apalachicola Bay.


----------



## jdgator (Aug 3, 2020)

Trust me, you the state to preserve the oyster beds it has left and then correct the problem.  If you want to see what it looks like when you lose ALL of your oyster beds, come over to Mobile bay. It is a pool of mucky, cloudy water, that was crystal clear and teaming with sea life as little as 15 years ago.


----------



## Dustin Pate (Aug 3, 2020)

Buckstop said:


> Sorry to hear that. Hopefully they will see some improvement, but I wouldn't hold my breath. It doesn't sound like an over fishing problem but a water quality problem.  We have had a similar water quality issue in the Indian River lagoon in E Cent FL and a total collapse of the clam fishery here 20 years ago.
> 
> Unfortunately, if there is an improvement in five years, there may be very few that still have licenses to harvest, as RS endorsements require a certain $ amount or percentage of income come from seafood sales to qualify for renewal.  Its a Catch 22, as unless the local fisherman can find an alternate fishery in the interim, many will be out with no way to re-enter the fishery by then




It isn't a water quality issue. There are farmed, aqua-culture oyster beds that are thriving in the area.


----------



## Buckstop (Aug 3, 2020)

Dustin Pate said:


> It isn't a water quality issue. There are farmed, aqua-culture oyster beds that are thriving in the area.


Seems there would be hope but not sure if water quality level requirements are the same for spat to take in the wild versus that for spawned stock to simply survive to maturity after being planted. They have great success growing aquaculture clams in Cedar Key but that area never had large self sustaining wild clam fishery. In our Indian River lagoon the shellfish leases were abandoned shortly after the collapse.


----------



## bullgator (Aug 3, 2020)

It was on our news two weeks ago. It’s the water wars with Georgia again. Georgia sending it to Atlanta instead of it flowing to the Gulf is creating a water quality situation. I believe they said t was allowing the bay to have a higher salt content than is ideal.


----------



## Boondocks (Aug 3, 2020)

The Hooch is full of water in South Georgia.They are lowering Lake Eufaula 3 feet this week.I have allways said the bay gets plenty of water from Georgia.


----------



## doomtrpr_z71 (Aug 3, 2020)

There has been 5 times that the flow out of woodruff dam has increased the salinity in Apalachicola bay, 3 times the flow was low enough in 2010 during the drought which was counteracted by increased flow from rain fall during the months in between, the other 2 times were one month intervals in 13 and 16 and the flow still met minimum requirements for the bay with greatly increased flow the next month due to rainfall. Florida has lost the water war and can't blame agriculture since the reduced flow events doesn't coincide with ag water withdrawals. The fwc is partly to blame and the oyster men are the other party to blame after the stripping of the bay during the deep water horizon incident. The fwc should have closed the bay then and didn't, just like how they ignored the warnell study that showed that the bay is actually getting too much freshwater influx. Trying to drain the Tate's Forest into the bay again isn't going to fix the issues.


----------



## Gator89 (Aug 4, 2020)

doomtrpr_z71 said:


> There has been 5 times that the flow out of woodruff dam has increased the salinity in Apalachicola bay, 3 times the flow was low enough in 2010 during the drought which was counteracted by increased flow from rain fall during the months in between, the other 2 times were one month intervals in 13 and 16 and the flow still met minimum requirements for the bay with greatly increased flow the next month due to rainfall. Florida has lost the water war and can't blame agriculture since the reduced flow events doesn't coincide with ag water withdrawals. The fwc is partly to blame and the oyster men are the other party to blame after the stripping of the bay during the deep water horizon incident. The fwc should have closed the bay then and didn't, just like how they ignored the warnell study that showed that the bay is actually getting too much freshwater influx. Trying to drain the Tate's Forest into the bay again isn't going to fix the issues.




In Florida, agriculture gets blamed for everything negative related to the environment.


----------



## Dusty Roads (Aug 4, 2020)

Nicodemus said:


> Slowly vanishing. Apalachicola Bay.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Good ol' days=gone


----------



## campboy (Aug 4, 2020)

Such a shame


----------



## Gator89 (Aug 4, 2020)

Last time I took the wife to Rick's on the River in Tampa for oysters, they were serving Texas oysters.


----------



## Lukikus2 (Aug 4, 2020)

Gator89 said:


> Last time I took the wife to Rick's on the River in Tampa for oysters, they were serving Texas oysters.



In the last three to four years in C. Fl. We have only been getting them from Texas or Louisiana. Even after the Horizon event.


----------



## crackerdave (Aug 9, 2020)

Florida is way over populated and has been stripped of all her natural resources by the Yankee invaders.

Georgia and the Carolinas are next,starting with the coastal areas.They will not stop until all is pavement.


----------



## bullgator (Aug 13, 2020)

Gator89 said:


> In Florida, agriculture gets blamed for everything negative related to the environment.


And that opens the door to developers.


----------



## bronco611 (Aug 16, 2020)

probably due to feces being in the oysters since Albany and Valdosta take pride in who can get away with dumping the most raw sewage into the rivers and getting away with it.


----------



## jiminbogart (Aug 16, 2020)

Wow.



			
				NPR said:
			
		

> The annual oyster harvest has dropped from more than 3 million lbs to less than 21,000 lbs.


----------



## Evergreen (Aug 18, 2020)

bronco611 said:


> probably due to feces being in the oysters since Albany and Valdosta take pride in who can get away with dumping the most raw sewage into the rivers and getting away with it.



Wasn't aware Valdistas sewage made it to Apalachicola bay


----------



## diamondback (Aug 18, 2020)

I think the biggest problem was telling the oyster fisherman to get em all before the oil from the horizon got to them. Then I really don’t know if it ever affected them at all. But I know they cleaned them out , even the rec areas. Then I’ve heard several that were caught getting over their allotment since , just being greedy. I did see the state and about 50 fishermen out there trying to seed the areas but too little too late imo.


----------



## Nicodemus (Aug 18, 2020)

Evergreen said:


> Wasn't aware Valdistas sewage made it to Apalachicola bay



It doesn`t. The Withlacoochee River runs into the Suwannee River and it flows into the Gulf between Steinhatchee and Cedar Key.


----------



## Dustin Pate (Aug 18, 2020)

diamondback said:


> I think the biggest problem was telling the oyster fisherman to get em all before the oil from the horizon got to them. Then I really don’t know if it ever affected them at all. But I know they cleaned them out , even the rec areas. Then I’ve heard several that were caught getting over their allotment since , just being greedy. I did see the state and about 50 fishermen out there trying to seed the areas but too little too late imo.




That year in late summer/fall I saw them pulling oysters in places I had never seen boats before. And then like you said, they got desperate after that and would harvest juvenile oysters and the problem just snowballed from there. I hope the bay rebounds, but I'm afraid the glory days of seeing dozens of oyster boats are now gone forever.


----------



## Nicodemus (Aug 18, 2020)

Dustin Pate said:


> That year in late summer/fall I saw them pulling oysters in places I had never seen boats before. And then like you said, they got desperate after that and would harvest juvenile oysters and the problem just snowballed from there. I hope the bay rebounds, but I'm afraid the glory days of seeing dozens of oyster boats are now gone forever.




I seriously doubt I`ll ever see them out there like that again in my lifetime. Like the mullet netters, another way of life from Old Florida gone.


----------



## LEGHORN (Aug 18, 2020)

I enjoyed mullet netting out of Nutall’s Rise on the Aucilla with my grandpa back in the day. I was a young teenager. He had a place down there. One of my hardest working summers was spending summer break down there with him working mullet nets and crab pots.


----------



## Evergreen (Aug 18, 2020)

Nicodemus said:


> It doesn`t. The Withlacoochee River runs into the Suwannee River and it flows into the Gulf between Steinhatchee and Cedar Key.



I know, I wasn't in a great mood when i read/wrote that and was being probably undeserved snarky sarcastic


----------



## JB0704 (Aug 18, 2020)

Nicodemus said:


> Slowly vanishing. Apalachicola Bay.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Ive been visiting SGI for over 20 years.  I remember how cool it was to see all the oyster boats out there early in the morning, men making a living on the bay.  Looked like very hard work.  Guide I charter with had a family oyster house closed after 55 + years due to the lack of oysters in the bay. The bay isn't making oysters anymore, and there is no shortages of theories as to why.  I hate it for them and that community.  It's very sad.


----------



## Dustin Pate (Aug 19, 2020)

Nicodemus said:


> I seriously doubt I`ll ever see them out there like that again in my lifetime. Like the mullet netters, another way of life from Old Florida gone.



I've posted it a number of times I'm sure, but I often drift back to thinking of better times there. The first time I really have memories from there are from probably the late 80's time frame. East Point was a vibrant town with oyster boats and houses, shrimp boats, and all the the services needed to keep them going... Same for Apalachicola. I feel really blessed to have seen it during that time and the hard working people that kept that community going. I also listen to stories from my family ,who had been going to the area since the 60's, and get a picture of life during that time

I know you have seen and felt the same things. There is a sadness now to see what the area has become. I know things change, but there was a feeling to the area that is now gone.


----------



## turkeykirk (Aug 19, 2020)

I remember an old oyster man in Steinhatchee back in the 60’s that had an old wooden sailboat with a pile of rocks for ballast. He would go out early and come in late everyday we were fishing. Reminds me of the Old Man and the Sea. Times sure have changed.


----------



## Nicodemus (Aug 19, 2020)

Dustin Pate said:


> I've posted it a number of times I'm sure, but I often drift back to thinking of better times there. The first time I really have memories from there are from probably the late 80's time frame. East Point was a vibrant town with oyster boats and houses, shrimp boats, and all the the services needed to keep them going... Same for Apalachicola. I feel really blessed to have seen it during that time and the hard working people that kept that community going. I also listen to stories from my family ,who had been going to the area since the 60's, and get a picture of life during that time
> 
> I know you have seen and felt the same things. There is a sadness now to see what the area has become. I know things change, but there was a feeling to the area that is now gone.




Dustin, you would have loved back in the early 1970`s. It truly was a different time. I fooled around from Econfina to Mexico Beach, The Forgotten Coast they call it now. You could run up on a mullet netter out there or at the ramp, get a mess of mullet from them, and a heap of times they wouldn`t even let you pay them for it. Limit on trout was 50 per person, and I don`t even know if there was a limit on reds and black seas bass. Reds were almost considered trash by some folks. Those were some shining times.


----------



## NCHillbilly (Aug 19, 2020)

As with most of our problems, the main cause is simply too many people.


----------



## doomtrpr_z71 (Aug 19, 2020)

I have a feeling when it opens back it will be with aquaculture production like in panacea and further west, it's no mystery why the fishery collapsed, it was overfished and the oyster beds didn't have fresh shell added back to them.


----------

