State wildlife officials could allow oyster harvesting in part of Northwest Florida’s Apalachicola Bay, where the fishery collapsed more than a decade ago and continues to struggle to recover.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission staff members have recommended a “limited opening,” as some oyster reefs in the bay have recovered to "a condition that could support limited commercial and recreational harvest.”
In a memo to commissioners, Jessica McCawley, director of the agency’s Division of Marine Fisheries Management, suggested a “lottery” to limit permits for recreational harvesters and new rules for the commercial industry. Restrictions could include such steps as a harvesting season between October and February, harvest limits each season, and increased reporting requirements. The area has been closed to harvesting since 2020.
“The oyster regulations that were in effect prior to the closure are not appropriate for the current state of the resource,” McCawley wrote in the memo.
The issue is scheduled to go before the commission Aug. 14 during a meeting at the state Public Safety Institute in Havana. Rules that advance out of the meeting aren’t expected to be finalized until a November commission meeting.
Apalachicola Bay has long been known for its oysters, once supplying more than 90 percent of Florida’s oysters and 10 percent of the oysters sold nationally. But the fishery collapsed in 2013.
McCawley’s memo also pointed to similar problems in other areas of the state, saying oysters “provide habitat, improve water quality, protect shorelines, and are valuable seafood products. Yet they face multiple threats that have led to the loss of 80–90% of the oyster reefs in Florida’s estuaries.”
“This is not an Apalachicola Bay issue. This is not a Florida issue, a Gulf issue, or a United States issue,” Devin Resko, biological administrator with the commission’s Division of Marine Fisheries Management, said during a February commission meeting. “This is a global issue of dramatically declining oyster populations.”
During the February meeting, a goal was announced to allow oyster harvesting in a small part of Apalachicola Bay at the start of 2026, when the closure is set to expire.
Franklin County Commission Chairman Ricky Jones told the commission about economic effects of the closure, saying it left the region more than 90% dependent on tourism.
“Franklin County wants the bay open,” Jones said at the February meeting. “It’s not just about the bay itself for the ecology, but for the fishery, for the economy of Franklin County.”
The bay and the oyster industry have faced problems because of issues such as drought and overharvesting.
Florida has long contended that excessive water use by Georgia has caused damage. The bay is at the southern end of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system, which starts in northern Georgia.
A commission staff presentation in February said “no significant recovery has occurred since the 2013 collapse.” But efforts continue to improve the bay.
The state budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, which started July 1, includes $12.5 million to restore oyster reefs in Apalachicola Bay and another $5 million for the Department of Environmental Protection to enter financial-assistance agreements with local governments on sewage facilities and stormwater projects to help protect the bay.
In December 2020, the wildlife commission approved suspending commercial oyster harvesting as part of a $20 million restoration effort. At the time, commission members said the suspension could be shortened if improvements were seen in the oyster population and the condition of the bay.
The restoration effort received money from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Gulf Environmental Benefits Fund. That fund receives money from a settlement with BP and Transocean over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Resko in February said limited areas of the bay could reopen as part of a plan to restore 2,000 acres by 2032. Such an effort would require annual funding of $30 million to $55 million.