By Staff Report
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) will next month consider giving final approval to a plan that would allow limited oyster harvesting in parts of Apalachicola Bay for the first time in five years.
Under the proposal, the bay’s harvesting season would run Jan. 1 through Feb. 28, with future seasons extending from October through February. The rules would reopen a small section of the bay while continuing restoration and monitoring efforts across the broader estuary.
Once a powerhouse of the seafood industry, Apalachicola Bay historically supplied over 90 percent of Florida’s oysters and 10 percent of the nation’s supply. However, the bay has been closed to harvesting since 2020 following years of environmental decline that began with a collapse in 2013, fueled by drought, overharvesting, and upstream water use in Georgia.
State officials have spent recent years investing in oyster-reef restoration, seeding projects, and research partnerships aimed at rebuilding the ecosystem. The bay sits at the southern end of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system, a watershed long at the center of disputes between Florida and Georgia over water flow and management.
The FWC is scheduled to meet Nov. 5–6 at Palm Beach State College in Belle Glade, where commissioners are expected to take up the proposal as part of their agenda.
WMBB