The Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission next week will consider a move to close the
Apalachicola Bay to oyster harvesting for up to 5 years, but county
commissioners want to make sure local oystermen have some help in
place before that action is taken.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation will discuss the issue at their July 22-23 Commission
meeting.
County coordinator Michael Moron said
requesting permission from the Commission to advertise the rule is
the first step of a 2 step process.
The second step would be to take the
final rule to the Commission at their September meeting for approval.
The draft rule will include language to
suspend harvesting effective August 1st, 2020 but if the Commission
does not approve the final rule in September, the order would be
suspended.
There is a five-year sunset provision
in the rule, but if monitoring finds at least 300 bags of
harvestable-sized oysters in a significant portion of the Bay, the
bay could reopen sooner.
Commissioner William Massey said he
feels 5 years is too long as it takes only 18 months for an oyster to
mature. He added that if the bay is closed for too long nobody will
be turning the bottom over and the oyster reefs will burr up.
Commissioner Smokey Parrish said he
supports some type of closure, though he feels it should have
happened years ago when there were more oysters on the bottom.
His concern is that once the bay is
closed, the closure could be extended for a longer time as has
happened in the past with other species like redfish.
The board agreed to send a letter to
the FWC voicing their concerns and requesting assistance for oyster
harvesters possibly through retraining programs or through limited
oyster harvesting in more productive areas of the bay.
The commission also agreed to have
commission chairmen Noah Lockley speak on the county's behalf at the
FWC meeting.
http://live.oysterradio.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment