dhsnke
Senior Member
I was in Panama city last week and the news said Apalachicola closed all harvesting of oysters until 2025.
Welcome Guest!
Apalachicola closed the oyster harvest
- Thread starter dhsnke
- Start date
Browning Slayer
Official Voice Of The Dawgs !
Yep, last Thursday, I believe. A way of life gone literally, like the mullet fishermen.
mamatried
Senior Member
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
Senior Member
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
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
Slowly vanishing. Apalachicola Bay.
jdgator
Senior Member
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.
It isn't a water quality issue. There are farmed, aqua-culture oyster beds that are thriving in the area.
Buckstop
Senior Member
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
Senior Member
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
Senior Member
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
Senior Member
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
Senior Member
In Florida, agriculture gets blamed for everything negative related to the environment.
Dusty Roads
Senior Member
Good ol' days=gone
campboy
Senior Member
Such a shame
Gator89
Senior Member
Last time I took the wife to Rick's on the River in Tampa for oysters, they were serving Texas oysters.
Lukikus2
Senior Member
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
Senior Member
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.
Georgia and the Carolinas are next,starting with the coastal areas.They will not stop until all is pavement.
Last edited:
bullgator
Senior Member
And that opens the door to developers.
