Oystermom, helping create oyster aquaculture in Florida

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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 Pa...
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The Movie, OYSTERMOM

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 Never, ever did I ever think there would be a movie produced about me.  But I failed to see the interest the oyster aquaculture story held for so many.  Including Jules Crespo, an FSU digital film school student.  She approached me during the pandemic saying her class was selecting three projects - and she wanted to propose the story of OysterMom.  I agreed to be supportive, and she submitted a project proposal.  It was rejected as a class project, but Jules was not hindered by that -- she said she wanted to produce it on her own.   Weeks later, she and two fellow classmates arrived at my dock for a day of filming out on the oyster lease.  She was fully equipped with a microphone, still and video capabilities.  She was also adept at asking questions, pulling stories out of me and capturing them in the moment.   A while later, she and the team arrived at my warehouse and filmed me for 1.5 hours -- question after question. Where...
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Gucci on the water

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We were flying across the water - following a fellow oyster farmer who was in a tunnel bottom boat with a Jack Plate.  We were both racing to the oyster leases to catch the low tide before it began to rise.  Then he almost got stuck in that magical boat that seems to only need a coating of water over the Bay's muddy bottom.  And he raced on leaving us stuck. Seriously stuck.  We exited Ginny, my 19' Carolina Skiff, and sank knee deep into the mud.  We tried to push, pull, then rested. It was impossible.  Only more water would be of help.  And then, I decided to fiddle with the Lowrance which had again given me fits.  I took off my prescription polarized Gucci sunglasses and put them on my head.  A habitual action, but I had my warm hat on so they really didn't hug my head as they normally do.  And then, it happened.  I leaned over to look at the water depth and they fell into the water.  It was only 8 inches,...
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