More than a decade after the oyster industry collapsed in Northwest Florida’s Apalachicola Bay, state wildlife officials Thursday gave preliminary approval Thursday to reopen some oyster reefs for harvesting in January, with plans to start a recurring seasonal harvest later in 2026.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission supported a month-long opening in January after people in the industry said they’ve waited five years to restart their businesses and can’t wait for the new season to begin in fall 2026. The bay was closed to harvesting in 2020 for what was expected to be five years.
“That’s hard on us, and it’s really not fair. You said five years,” Eastpoint resident Frances Estes told the commission.
Estes said that when the bay closed, the commission “left us out of work.”
“There weren’t but 15 of us left when they closed it down,” Estes said later. “There’s not a bunch of oyster people left, but the ones that are left want to go to work.”
Rules supported Thursday included steps for holding a season in future years between Oct. 1 and the end of February, with harvest limits and increased reporting requirements. Licensing preferences would go to commercial harvesters. A small number of recreational harvesters, potentially limited to about 10 whose names would be drawn through a lottery, would be able to go into the region on weekends.
Wayne Williams, of the Seafood Work and Waterman’s Association, said not every oyster harvester might not have technology to report their hauls, and he hopes the state doesn’t limit the permitting for the remaining harvesters in January.
“We need to be able to continue to get more and more harvesters as those resources get better over time,” Williams said. “I don't think we'll have a problem with a lot of people going out there trying to oyster right now. It may slowly build back up over time as the resources get better.”
Not everyone was behind an opening in January.
Chad Hanson, science and policy officer for the Pew Charitable Trusts, said after the meeting the January season could be used to see how reefs that are harvested bounce back over the summer, but it could also affect what is available when the subsequent season starts in October 2026.
“It could be some sort of pulse, like an early reading on the impact of harvesting on those reefs. So, it could be an experimental fishery,” Hanson said. “There could be some positives, but on the flip side they could harvest all the available resources. So, it could hinder what they might do in the fall.”
Gulf and Franklin county commissioners backed the reopening, expressing concerns about limits to catch sizes and the number of harvesters, both recreationally and commercially.
“Going forward, we want to see as many as our people that want to be in the harvest, to be involved,” Franklin County Commission Chairman Ricky Jones said. “For many of them, it's what their grandparents did, what their parents did,”
Wildlife commissioners will be asked to finalize the rule changes when they meet in November.
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.
With the area closed to harvesting during the past five years, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has has a goal to restore 2,000 acres of reefs by 2032.
The Pew Charitable Trusts noted that in the mid-2000s, “healthy oyster habitat covered 10,000 acres in the bay.”
The bay and the oyster industry have faced problems because of issues such as drought and overharvesting.
Florida also 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 the 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.
The 2020 suspension of harvesting was 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.