Oyster fishing in Apalachicola Bay has been a way of life for a lot of folks for over 170 years. Photo: Sherry Jackson/Deep South Magazine
by Paul Haney/ Tallahassee Democrat
The Big Bend Scenic Byway continues on Route 98 along Florida’s Forgotten Coast. A series of bays and bayous makes up the rich seafood and wildlife habitat where the Apalachicola River — having finished its journey from the confluence of the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers at the Florida border — empties into the Apalachicola Bay.
Apalachicola or Oyster Town, with just 3,000 permanent residents, remains an Old-Florida outpost where genuine friendliness intermingles with antebellum architecture, snazzy gift shops and serious seafood dining.
An oyster emergency
The methods of the Apalachicola Bay oyster industry have been relatively unchanged for nearly two centuries. Oystermen still pick oysters with tongs, rather than with damaging dragnets.
The waters of the Apalachicola River have been continuously fed by nutrient-rich cypress and tupelo swamps upstream.
However, fluctuating water levels in the Flint-Chattahoochee-Apalachicola basin recently prompted the federal government to declare a crisis in the Apalachicola Bay oyster industry. Too much fresh water flowing down the Apalachicola decreases the salinity of the bay; too little increases salinity. Either way, the oysters struggle to adapt.
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