Beautiful weather and the promise of fresh seafood helped lure thousands of people to Apalachicola over the weekend to take part in the 46th annual Florida Seafood Festival. We should have exact attendance and earning results from the festival later this week. As always the oyster eating and oyster shucking contests proved to be extremely popular. There were 10 men and 2 women in the oyster eating contest – the winner in the women’s division was Angie Harnage of Georgia who downed 100 oysters in 8 minutes. Miss Harnage is now a three time oyster eating champion. The winner in the men’s division was Gerald Hireman of Tallahassee who at 336 oysters in 8 minutes. He demolished the competition – the second place winner ate 216. This year’s oyster shucking champ was Mike Martin of Panama City beach who shucked a dozen oysters in 1 minute and 35 seconds. Second place went to three-time national oyster shucking champion Scotty O’Lear – Mister O’Lear is headed to Ireland next year to compete in the world championships. Local seafood workers also used the festival as an opportunity to spread the word about an FDA proposal to ban raw Gulf Coast oysters for up to 7 months a year. Over the two day festival the Seafood Workers Association collected over 4000 signatures opposing the move.
http://www.oysterradio.com
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