On the front door of Barnacle Bill’s restaurant in Tallahassee is a notice. It reads, “Due to extreme shortages of oysters on the winter oyster beds and catch regulations, the price of oysters has skyrocketed.” Inside, Jim-Bob Heller and Jay Parr are sitting at the bar where customers can buy oysters by the bucket.
“I mean seriously, we just enjoyed some fantastic Apalachicola oysters. They were great. And to think that, you know, we wouldn’t have that anymore, it’s, that would be really unfortunate.”Says Jay Parr. He called the situation a perfect storm.
After the BP Oil Spill devastated most Gulf states’ oyster fisheries, Apalachicola Bay became the last place to harvest oysters. The Bay was a bastion of hope for the industry. But that hope is fading.
“The oil spill has eliminated any kind of backup. So there’s no other place, when we have an event, a devastating storm, we got nowhere to turn to get oysters. It’s the bay and that’s pretty much it.” Says Barnacle Bill’s owner Jeff Stillwater.
Some of the problems can’t be fixed. Climate change and droughts are naturally occurring. But some problems can be helped. The Apalachicola River feeds the bay, but droughts near its source are making the water too salty and depleting its nutrients. That’s eroding the rocks that oyster larvae attach to so they can develop. One solution calls for funding to replenish the population in the hopes of the industry holding out until the Spring Floods return.
“The funds that we’re looking for is to actually reseed and re-shell our bay to try to bring the resources up and hopefully in the time that we’re doing that we’ll get more river-flows to bring the nutrients that we need to actually sustain and replenish the Bay here.” Says Franklin County Commissioner and Fisherman Joseph Parrish.
But for now the high salinity mixed with warming waters is creating another issue. The Bay’s become a great habitat for the oysters’ top predators: Stone Crabs and Rock Snails. And when the BP Oil Spill hit, many feared if the oysters weren’t harvested they’d be lost. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Resources says that caused overharvesting and the illegal harvesting of juvenile oysters.
“It’s like being a farmer but without ever planning. Not rotating your crops, not planning on what you’re going to put over here this year and next year. We need to fertilize this year. We don’t do any of that. You know, we kinda just, the fishermen just go out and catch and catch and catch and nobody’s watching.” Says Barnacle Bill’s Jeff Stillwater. He believes the culprit is fishery mismanagement.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission deals with all illegal harvesting offenses.
“What we can say from our end is that we do have officers out on the water all the time and we don’t believe that any illegal harvest has a major role to play in this.” Says Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Spokeswoman Amanda Nalley
In November, Nalley says the state will decide whether to close harvesting on the weekends, if the oyster numbers are still too low. Last month, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services issued a report saying there clearly will not be enough oysters for the upcoming harvest.
Back at Barnacle Bill’s, Jeff Stillwater believes the restaurant will survive. But just in case oysters become too hard to find, he’s renovating the kitchen so he can market other food.
