Amber Alert - my babies are gone!
It was Saturday, April 2, 2016.
Michael and I were on the water for the first time since Matt Hodges and I had readied 1350 oysters for market on Monday, March 28. Matt and I had also moved my remaining 42 baskets from the Wakulla Environmental Institute's Research and Education Lease to my lease in Oyster Bay. It had been a long day and a hard day of work on that Monday with Matt. I felt good about all we had accomplished. I was happy to have all my oysters in one place.
That following Thursday, Matt picked up the 1350 and took them to WEI - a donation for a Chamber of Commerce event that would be held on Sat April 2. They wanted my oysters as they were large, beautiful, perfect.
Michael and I tended to sorting and starting my system for organizing now everything was in one place - and then we noticed that 2 of the 6 mm baskets holding my new spat, the O'Malley's as I had named them as they had been delivered on St Patrick's day, were missing. We checked around the lease. They had not fallen. They were gone.
I estimated approx. 2,500 spat in each of those baskets. My heard dropped. This was not a boater grabbing a snack pack of oysters for lunch. This was a theft of spat. It had to be someone who knew I had just received spat. It had to be someone farming oysters. That made the loss even more painful.
I sent a text to Bob Ballard when I got home. I barely slept. I called FL Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission -- they said I had to call the Wakulla Sheriffs office. I called them, and they said it was the responsibility of FWCC. Who is on first? Who has our backs for this new industry? Who is watching? I tried FWCC again and got a different dispatcher who was more empathetic. Within the hour, Officer Morales called. He was willing to meet me on the water to investigate. In the meantime, Bob Ballard called me. His father in law had also had two spat baskets taken. Tony wants to 'hurt someone' he said.
We agreed to meet at Rock Landing and head out to the leases to meet the FWCC officers. The tide was very low and their 30' Commander could not make it through the oyster reefs to the lease site so Officer Morales jumped in Ginny and we rode together. Bob and the officer talking the whole way as I steered. He had no knowledge of the oyster farming. Had never been to the bay. Had never seen the equipment. I pulled out my maps and list of lease holders, my AQ card and pointed out the survey markers. He was impressed. We discussed the timeline of the O'Malley's delivery to the lease - to noticing they were missing. It was all just education for future surveillance as there was nothing he could do at this point.
I stopped at the Wakulla Sheriffs office on the way home and filed a report of the theft. They assigned a detective who called me early on Monday morning to get the facts. He and another would be on the case. I emailed the map and lease holder list. And sat back and realized an entire new opportunity for the dishonest had been created with our oyster farms. No one could steal oysters before without working hard to harvest the wild bivalves. They could take from closed areas potentially harming the consumer, they could take undersized oysters, harming the oyster population itself - but they could not steal from each other. It is despicable. Low. Mean.
It is now more than a week later. I've cried, felt violated, considered closing my farm.
How can one move on when the babies you've nurtured are missing? I found solace in tending the others and am moving forward. For now.
And put up cameras.
Michael and I were on the water for the first time since Matt Hodges and I had readied 1350 oysters for market on Monday, March 28. Matt and I had also moved my remaining 42 baskets from the Wakulla Environmental Institute's Research and Education Lease to my lease in Oyster Bay. It had been a long day and a hard day of work on that Monday with Matt. I felt good about all we had accomplished. I was happy to have all my oysters in one place.
That following Thursday, Matt picked up the 1350 and took them to WEI - a donation for a Chamber of Commerce event that would be held on Sat April 2. They wanted my oysters as they were large, beautiful, perfect.
Michael and I tended to sorting and starting my system for organizing now everything was in one place - and then we noticed that 2 of the 6 mm baskets holding my new spat, the O'Malley's as I had named them as they had been delivered on St Patrick's day, were missing. We checked around the lease. They had not fallen. They were gone.
I estimated approx. 2,500 spat in each of those baskets. My heard dropped. This was not a boater grabbing a snack pack of oysters for lunch. This was a theft of spat. It had to be someone who knew I had just received spat. It had to be someone farming oysters. That made the loss even more painful.
I sent a text to Bob Ballard when I got home. I barely slept. I called FL Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission -- they said I had to call the Wakulla Sheriffs office. I called them, and they said it was the responsibility of FWCC. Who is on first? Who has our backs for this new industry? Who is watching? I tried FWCC again and got a different dispatcher who was more empathetic. Within the hour, Officer Morales called. He was willing to meet me on the water to investigate. In the meantime, Bob Ballard called me. His father in law had also had two spat baskets taken. Tony wants to 'hurt someone' he said.
We agreed to meet at Rock Landing and head out to the leases to meet the FWCC officers. The tide was very low and their 30' Commander could not make it through the oyster reefs to the lease site so Officer Morales jumped in Ginny and we rode together. Bob and the officer talking the whole way as I steered. He had no knowledge of the oyster farming. Had never been to the bay. Had never seen the equipment. I pulled out my maps and list of lease holders, my AQ card and pointed out the survey markers. He was impressed. We discussed the timeline of the O'Malley's delivery to the lease - to noticing they were missing. It was all just education for future surveillance as there was nothing he could do at this point.
I stopped at the Wakulla Sheriffs office on the way home and filed a report of the theft. They assigned a detective who called me early on Monday morning to get the facts. He and another would be on the case. I emailed the map and lease holder list. And sat back and realized an entire new opportunity for the dishonest had been created with our oyster farms. No one could steal oysters before without working hard to harvest the wild bivalves. They could take from closed areas potentially harming the consumer, they could take undersized oysters, harming the oyster population itself - but they could not steal from each other. It is despicable. Low. Mean.
It is now more than a week later. I've cried, felt violated, considered closing my farm.
How can one move on when the babies you've nurtured are missing? I found solace in tending the others and am moving forward. For now.
And put up cameras.
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