The Florida Department of Agriculture held a public hearing in Apalachicola on Tuesday to discuss the proposed update to the Apalachicola Bay Management Plan which spells out the various oyster harvesting areas of the bay and under what circumstances those areas are opened and closed.
Only two people showed up for the meeting, I was one of them.
No one from the seafood industry attended the hearing – though every oyster harvester who works the Apalachicola Bay will be impacted by the changes to the management plan.
Most of the proposed changes will be good for oyster harvesters and should allow them to work more days a year.
The new management plan will lower the number of days that oyster bars are closed because of rainfall and river levels.
In most cases the river levels or the amount of rainfall needed to close an oyster harvesting area has been increased.
For example, the approved winter harvesting area 1611 west which under the new plan would simply be called area 1611 will require a three day rainfall amount of 11.6 inches to close as opposed to the current 7.5 inches.
The same is true for area 1611 east, which under the new plan will be called area 1601.
Overall, the new plan is expected to cut the number of days area 1622 is closed by 1.8 days a month, The number of days area 1632 is closed would fall by .2 days, and the number of days area 1642 is closed would fall by .7 days.
The new management plan will also redraw some boundary lines so that the combined size of approved areas 1611 and 1601 would increase by nearly 1500 acres, area 1642 would increase by 787 acres and area 1622 would increase by nearly 1900 acres.
Area 1612 will be about 2000 acres smaller.
The updated management plan is expected to take effect by the new year - but seafood workers still have a few days to file written comments on the plan before it is finalized.
Anyone who would like to comment on the changes to the management plan can e-mail their comments to Chris Brooks at the Department of Agriculture by 5 PM on November the 29th.
His e-mail address is posted below:
http://www.oysterradio.com e-mail manager@oysterradio.com with comments
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