The law and $10,000
Poaching of farmed raised oysters ruined an early 1900 attempt to farm oysters in the famed Apalachicola Bay. Hunters of the wild oysters found it much easier and quicker to just take from the farm and sell the oysters as their own. Imagine where FL would sit now in the world oyster market has that not closed the farms. Today, poaching continues and indeed, threatens the new farms just starting in water column oyster aquaculture. It is deflating. Disappointing and financially devastating. The oysters float in baskets and feed in a vast bay. - reaping all the benefits of the sea. The farm infrastructure is sometimes visible from land but only accessible by boat. It takes a lot of work and a huge commitment of time and money to work an oyster farm. So poaching is a real threat. We, the oyster farmers, watch out for each other. We know each other's boats and each other. If we see someone out on the Aquaculture Use Zone, we stop and talk. Its like talki