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In 2013, US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker declared the commercial failure of the Florida oyster fishery, but a report from the University of Florida that year recommended that oyster farming could help damaged ecosystems and promote restoration. That's when the Florida state government legalized this practice.
Today, those who work here in Oyster Bay are only removing the oysters they have put, and experts believe this helps the return of these damaged coastal ecosystems. But as the industry is still so young in the Gulf of Mexico, there is no clear way to prepare for a storm. Some farmers sank their farms to the bottom of the ocean, hoping to avoid the strong winds and violent waves of the storm, while others tried to tie their lines to stronger anchors.
"Nothing says that if the storm is in this category, you should do it, but that you should do it," said William Walton, a professor at Auburn University of the School of Fisheries, who said: Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, known farmers "Dr. Oyster." "But if you navigate this water, it really depends on the protection, and the direction of the wind, the storm and its speed, and we may never reach a simple task list."
Farmers said they did not have time to think about getting ready for the next storm, as their livelihoods were threatened.
Once the oysters have matured, Gregg and the other farmers in the area try to market them as quickly as possible so that the bags are not lost due to robberies, storms, predators or other unknown quantities. sea.
"Every day you keep those oysters," said Gregg, "you risk losing them."
Dreams broken by the fury of a storm
Time is also an important factor for those farmers who want to sell those few oysters that survived Michael. It is unclear when they will be able to sell again, as they will not be able to put oysters on the market until the Florida Department of Agriculture tests and approves the water quality of the bay. But no one knows when the government will do this because the Florida water testing facilities at Apalachicola were damaged by the storm.
The Ministry of Agriculture did not immediately comment on this schedule, but farmers could suffer further losses if they are not able to sell their mature oysters quickly.
Ben Wiggins and Phil Brugginer, both 35, took the boat for Lawrence to compare the losses with the other farmers. The two men, who run the Palmetto Island Oyster Company, said they have sown 400,000 oysters in the last year and expect to lose more than 60%. This means that they can not quit their jobs – Wiggins is a landscaper and Brugginer works in a grocery store – to work in their full-time oyster farming, a dream shared by both men.
"It takes us back six months or even a year," said Wiggins, who wore a big straw sun hat and pulled on the buckle of his waders. "We will not do it so soon because we do not know when we can sell again."
All farmers said that the future was not clear, but these losses are very seriously affected. Few of them had any type of insurance because many insurance companies considered the activity too risky.
When Gregg, who works alone and without insurance, spent more than $ 5,000 in 200,000 oyster seeds to put in the water last August, he hoped to sell half of it. According to his estimate, this would have earned him about $ 50,000 after paying off his borrowings and buying new oyster seeds. Now, his seed is gone and each bag contains a huge amount of dead oysters.
Gregg was silent after pouring one of the last bags, the boat swaying gently under the bright sun of Florida. Tears came to his eyes as he stood at the edge of the boat. His family saw his pay check, he said, and now he did not know how he was going to pay his bills.
"So many people have so much worse," he said rubbing his face, but that does not change the reality of my situation. "
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