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WSRE Specials

The Humble Oyster

Special | 26m 46s | Video has closed captioning.

A new film produced by Mississippi State University Films for the Pensacola & Perdido Bays Estuary Program—examines the fragility of Northwest Florida’s threatened coastal ecology and efforts to bring back the health of local bays and a once vibrant commercial industry through oyster restoration. The film documents an oyster farmer’s first harvest and an oyster harvester’s memories of the past.

Aired: 05/25/23

Rating: TV-G

Problems Playing Video? | Closed Captioning

Funding & Distribution
Transcript

WSRE Specials is a local public television program presented by WSRE PBS.

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(water rippling) (crickets chirping) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) - My name is Shana. I was born and raised in Santa Rosa County, Garcon Point, Florida. My background is marine biology and I am an aspiring oyster farmer. (water splashing) (oysters rattling) Yeah, that one looks pretty good. Oysters have always been a part of my life from when I was a young child spending the time in Escambia Bay, hunting for clams, hunting for oysters, fishing. And, then, later on, when I did my first volunteer job out of college, it was counting oyster spats. So, oysters have been a reoccurring factor in my life. I established my farm in, I believe I got approved in 2019, and I actually put my oysters out in the water in 2021 of May. It's been almost a year since they've been in the water and we're coming up on harvest soon. My first harvest coming up is important, because you've seen all your hard work from a six millimeter oyster all the way to approximately two inches, two and a half inches oyster, grow. I mean, those are your babies. I have 75,000 babies out there. So, it is important, because that is all my hard work coming to a head, and I don't even know what that's gonna feel like when I'm actually bagging them up and bringing them to market for the first time, because, I mean, it's just gonna feel like a huge relief, I guess. Huge relief and huge accomplishment. This one's good. Yeah, it looks looking pretty, huh? I'll put some of these in that other basket just to thin 'em out. (oysters rattling) (gentle music) Oysters are what we call a keystone species. A keystone is the top of the Roman arch that holds everything together. You take that stone out and the whole arch will fall. Same goes with oysters. - It's very vital to have a healthy oyster population. They are your baseline for the health of the bay system. They filter a huge amount of water, so if you've got a healthy oyster population, they're filtering thousands and thousands of gallons of water every day, continuously. - The oyster reefs and the beds that we have, they're basically like condos. So, they provide life, habitat, food, and shelter for so many different types of not only fish, but also invertebrates, a lot of small little crabs, worms, things like that. So, that's where the starting building blocks basically of the ecosystem is. And, then, from there, it's just that it has a whole food chain movement. You have little baby things that larger fish like to eat and things like that. And, then of course people, we depend on these resources too. So, it's basically the bottom of the food chain. And, that does provide so many benefits. And, they also help protect shorelines from wind erosion and water erosion also. And, so they're really... They're really beneficial, not only for their food source, but also because of their biological benefits basically. - When I was growing up, it was easy to go out here and find oysters growing along the shoreline, clam beds along the shoreline, and they were plentiful. I was also heavily surrounded by the oysters of the area. We were always eating them. We were always having them at barbecues. And, today, it is almost impossible to find an East Bay or Escambia Bay oyster - Going back to the Native Americans that oysters were crucial in their existence. And, then, throughout the years, especially in like San Rosa County, the Milton area Garcon Point, and in Pensacola too, oysters were harvested. It was a regular thing. In the 60s and 70s, probably the 70s is what some of the older harvesters have- Wild harvesters have told me were probably some of the most successful. Those times they'd be pulling in a million dollars in wild harvest shell product. - I remember as a kid going out to Escambia Bay with my grandfather oystering, and there would be 30 boats stretched up and down through there oystering every day, every decent day weather-wise. Every day you had that was decent, there would be a... Just a tremendous amount of boats oystering. I got involved as a fisherman with Nichols Seafood. It's right down the road from my house. I sold fish to the previous owners for years and years. And, when they got ready to retire, they dangled the keys to it in front of me and said, we want you in here. So, I ended up with it. And, oysters were a big part of our draw. We had probably 20 oystermen working for us in the prime of oyster season. We would be bringing in 100 to 150 sacks a day. We were selling 'em to the restaurants, selling 'em to the seafood dealers, selling 'em in our restaurant for as cheap as 10 cents a piece, just to move them, just to keep everything rolling, keep our oystermen going. So, it was really kicking there for a long time. It was just... It was utopia for oysters. (gentle music) And, then come along Hurricane Ivan. Hurricane Ivan was detrimental to us. We had 17 foot of storm surge here. Totally destroyed our building, our fish house, our processing plant. And, there was a huge influx of sea water of really salt water. Oysters like a balance of fresh and salt water. Not too much fresh, not too much salt. So, when you had this big intrusion of salt water, it took its toll on 'em also. - The oyster population in our bays is cyclic. There's a graph that, the landing, the fisheries landing, and you can see the ups and downs of the oyster harvest since like 1995. And, through that time, all the peaks, the peaks are just like when it's good weather. And, most of the lows are things like storms. You can really see in that graph how clearly the industry does. Like it... That it gets blown away from a storm, or silt, and covered up, and stuff. Then, the few years it takes to gradually it builds up and then it's at a peak again, and then another storm. So, then it goes down and then back up. - Then, come BP oil spill. Although we didn't have a huge amount of, if any, oil in our bays, the regulatory bodies thought that it was coming and they left our bays open to oystering all summer. - Normally, our oyster beds are closed during that time, in that summertime, and it's primarily to let the oysters spawn. That is their spawning season. And, so in 2010 though, they were allowed, the oystermen were allowed to harvest during that time. Basically, the thought was get all the oysters out while they're still good. And, so there was a harvest by our local guys, but then there were a lot of outlaws that came in and they actually were dredging our beds. - Some rogue oystermen going down there with a dredge, it's called a dredge, it's a device they drag on the bottom, it's like driving a bulldozer over a pile of sand. It just flattens the habitat out. They lose their habitat and they have nothing to grow back to. And, that was really the nail in the coffin for our oysters. And, there's a few places you can go, and scratch around, and get you a mess to eat, but there is no commercial fishery here anymore. And, it wasn't that many years ago that there was a very vital one, producing a lot of oysters. (water splashing) (shells rattling) - Nothing. See, when I came to check on all these, they were all good. And, then the crab gets in here, grows, and just eats everything, but that's all... That whole basket there is a loss. This one's not good. That was a pretty shelly basket. That one sounds bad too. You can hear just by the crackles. It's very physically demanding. You're carrying baskets that can be up to 50 pounds, maybe more if you've overloaded them. You've got ropes. If you're trying to string a rope and you've got some resistance in the waves, it's pretty difficult. We've had boats run through the gear, lines break. I know they're there, but I can't get to them, being in the sun all day working technically two jobs, because I do have a full-time job. And, then I work this on the weekends. So, it can be demanding mentally as well. Plus, you're worried about, okay, a storm's coming in, is everything gonna get blown away this time? Or, am I gonna lose everything? What I am facing now, which is unique to me, is they are requiring me to move my farm. I'm barely one month away from my first harvest and they told me that I am now required to move my farm due to water quality issues. Based on the trending data, they have decided to redraw the conditionally approved harvest areas, meaning that they open and close with rain events, that's normal. But, now this will be a closed area, meaning that no oysters will be allowed to come out of this location, whether they're wild caught or farmed raised oysters. - Our shellfish harvest for our... From our bay is regulated by the Department of Agriculture, the Florida Department of Agriculture, the Division of Aquaculture. And, they do a really good job of monitoring it, doing water samples, keeping up with opening and closures, because if we get a lot of fresh water, a lot of runoff, they'll close it to harvest until it goes down. Well, they have recently had to close a large portion of our bay system due to continuous high fecal counts. Now, the fecal counts that they're getting aren't enough to affect you and I as far as fishing, or swimming in it, or whatnot. But, oysters have a really high tolerance for this. So, the threshold is really small for the amount of fecal count, but it's been continuously there, which tells me there's a problem going on. And, there is a problem going on. And, it's the development without infrastructure. - Santa Rosa County has doubled its population in the last 10 years. And, so we've had a lot of development, a lot of clear cutting, and that is contributing to runoff, runoff into our bays, septic overflows. - All of these coastal communities now that are being built down in here and even up the river and whatnot, are being built on septic tanks and there's no sewer in place. So, all these septic systems leach out into our our waterways, and they're having an impact on it now. - And, then there's also you have sewage spills, you have sewage wastewater plants that actually discharge clean water into the system, that does still contain nutrients and things like that. And, then, recently, in the last couple years here, we've had like along the Gulf Coast, we've had about an average of 20 inches of rain in addition to our normally tropical weather. And, so I think that the rain, as you get rain, you get a higher river flow, you get increased sediments, and sediments are really detrimental to oyster beds. And, so it's a combination of a lot of different things. - They have agreed to continue to monitor those fecal counts for the foreseeable future. And, if they see a trend downward at some point, then they can start talking about reopening the location. It's my understanding that they've never opened a closed location. So, that's a little bit scary. I will have to start over with a new survey, a new pylon setting, and I'm missing the season, so I can't put more seed in the water right now, because, at any day now, they could close that and tell me I can no longer harvest. If they do close while my oysters are in the water, I cannot harvest them at all. There's no rules or regulation that allow me to move them to another site once that site has closed. These are a bit smaller. You can see right there, those are dead ones, and they're a pretty decent size but we're just gonna sort through everything, and size them out, and see what we get. You got hurricanes, you got heat waves, you got rain events. Gotta have a thick skin. When you're talking about one person against the world, it's always a never-ending battle. You're going uphill as the avalanche is sliding you backwards. But, the way I see it is, if you're not willing to face those hard times, then you're never gonna make a difference. I've invested everything that I have into this. I'm not wealthy, I grew up in poverty, and I saved every dime that I could to make this happen. And, I've invested everything I have in it, not to mention my time and energy, but I can't quit, because this is my passion, this is my dream. And, so I will start over again, but it definitely has me a little hurt. - [Speaker] Last one. - Yep. Got some heft. - [Speaker] So glad it's not super hot. - I'm getting hot. - [Speaker] Yeah, well, we've been in hotter days. - I kinda wanna jump in. Ooh. Ooh. (oysters rattling) (oysters rattling) So, from tip to umbo, I'm looking at 3.89 inches. That's a harvestable oyster. So, this is the first time I've tried one of my oysters. Let's give it a shot. Really good. It's nice and salty. It's not overwhelming. Yeah, that was delicious. Yummy. (crickets chirping) (crickets chirping) (motor running) (gentle music) - I think if we don't... If we don't have clean water, and if we don't have natural resources, and this... That our economy will easily collapse. And, we've seen it not only with the oil spill, but if you think that if you don't have the things that people wanna come here for, they're not gonna come. And, it's not just, when you talk about, it's not just restaurants and things like that, but it's medical professions, industry, they won't be here. And, if you don't have that, you don't have an economy. So, it's not just the natural resources and tourism, but it's the whole picture. But, I think that there's been an awful lot of attention in our area of on oyster beds, the importance of them. We've created a oysters fisheries management plan, working with the Nature Conservancy in the Perdido Pensacola Bay Estuary programs. And, we've got that. The next step in having that plan completed is we're actually gonna be, in a couple of weeks, having a meeting and looking at places for restoration, for habitat, for wild harvest, for aquaculture. Really putting the plan into action into our bays. And, I think that we are working to overcome what's... What's been done. Some of it's natural, some of it's manmade. And, I think that, right now, we're at the time that we really should be paying attention. And, I think that we do, we have commissioners listening, we have leaders that do care about our oyster beds too. And, I think that there definitely is hope that it's not gonna be forever gone. - Here, we have gotten into a... Trying to develop an oyster hatchery to... Just to rejuvenate our bay, do anything we can to try to jumpstart our oysters back. We've got several projects going on down the bay as far as other conservation groups, as far as restoration type projects that are putting the substrate, which is rock and shell down, to give oysters something to grow onto, but, at this point, we really don't have enough oysters down our bay to make a successful spawn. So, we've taken it on ourself to try to grow oyster spat from hatch it from larva, and then develop it into spat, and be able to plant it on these beds, on these these places, and get it jump started hopefully. We have the facilities here. We've been blessed with the facilities here. And, our fish house anymore is not... We're not in the commercial fishing business anymore, per se. So, we've kind of adapted that areas and whatnot. We've got some big tanks in there, some reservoirs, some filter systems, to grow these things and give it a shot. - All life, all people that live here really need to, of course, enjoy the water and the resources, but then understand how fragile they are, and that it takes all of us to work together in order to keep... To maintain what we have and sustain what we have right now. - I think that a person would ask themself is this the right thing to do constantly as a farmer, because you do encounter so many setbacks, but anything worth doing is gonna be hard. The time, the money, the emotional ups and downs. And, so I am constantly asking myself, is this the right thing to do? And, I always come back to, yes, it absolutely is. - [Speaker] Cool. - [Shana Alford] That's it. - [Speaker] So, that's it - That's it. That's it. Woo. Now, we can go home. This is what I want to do. This is who I am. I am an oyster farmer, I am a marine scientist, and I want to benefit the bays for my future generation. I have no intention of leaving this area. I have no intentions of just saying, well, let somebody else deal with that problem. I wanna be part of the solution to help clean Escambia and East Bay. (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music)

2023-06-05T19:00:00-05:00	'70s Soul Superstars (My Music)
2023-06-05T21:30:00-05:00	Mavis Staples at Symphony Center, Chicago

The Humble Oyster

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