Stronger oyster harvesting rules take effect today

Stricter rules on oyster harvesting in the Apalachicola Bay take effect today.

Starting today and running through May 31st commercial and recreational oyster harvesting will be prohibited on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Till now harvesting was prohibited only on Saturdays and Sundays.

Check stations also reopen today.
Through March 10th, commercial oyster harvesters have to bring their catch to one of two monitoring check stations.
The monitoring stations are found at the Patton Street boat ramp in Eastpoint and at Lombardi’s Landing in Apalachicola.
They will be open from 10 till 4.
The monitoring stations will allow officials to check oysters to verify they are legal size and that oystermen aren't violating the daily bag limits.
Bags of oysters that pas through the check station will be tagged; Wholesale dealers can only accept oysters that have the state of Florida tag.

All other regulations remain in place including a commercial daily limit of 3 bags per person and a recreational daily limit of 5 gallons of oysters in the shell per person.

The harvest closure in portions of areas 1612 and 1622 south of Sheepshead Bayou also remains in effect.

http://live.oysterradio.com/