APALACHICOLA — Just in time for the holidays, the planting of Apalachicola Bay began last month, with close to 200 of the county’s oystermen busy thrice a week spreading shell to replenish the oyster bars.
And like the proverbial postman, “Neither rain nor cold nor gloom of day stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”
On a chilly, rain-swept morning in East Bay, about 168 people, their boats weighted down with bushels of fossilized shell, braved the weather to expand the acreage of available shell surface for oyster spat to cling to and grow.
“It was a nasty day, a regular working nasty day,” said Shannon Hartsfield, president of the Franklin County Seafood Workers Association and chief overseer of the operation. “Rain doesn’t bother us as long as there’s not lightning in it.
“The guys don’t mind working in the rain. They put on slickers and get the day done. This is where you find out the true oystermen.”
This first phase of a $4.5 million federal project was originally designed to last six months, with about 200 people working per day, three days a week.
“If less people work, it’s going to last a little longer,” Hartsfield said. “Whatever money’s there, it’s going to be used.”
Hartsfield, who directs the program as an employee of CareerSource Gulf Coast, said the program has 256 people signed up, with still more coming on, and about 168 of these on average have worked on shelling over the past two weeks.
“There are guys oystering now that are in the shelling program, and a few guys who have a part-time job, just temporary, two to three months of work, at decent pay,” he said. “Right now, we’re shooting to work three days a week, and when we get too many vessels working, we’ll have to break it down into an A and B group, and split the boats up, then two days a week for each group.”
The program first tackled shelling off St. George Island’s East Hole, and this week is at East Bay south of the Gorrie Bridge, and will then move on to Cat Point. “We should have started three weeks ago, but the weather’s been too bad, with 15-20 mph winds, and nasty weather. The weather wasn’t feasible,” Hartsfield said. “If it starts getting too rough, I’ll quit, I’ll call it. We’ve had some nasty stuff.”
The boats line up at the crack of dawn and get started at about 8 a.m. after Hartsfield takes roll call. “I have guys who get there at 5:30 a.m.; they want to be first,” he said. “You go first, you get through first.”
Each boat gets two scoops of shell and heads out to the staging area to scatter them off the sides of the boat over 1-acre sections, 208 feet by 208 feet. When they’re done with that, the boat returns for a second and final load of the day.
Hartsfield said one line of boats can complete its work in an about one hour and 45 minutes. “We’ve been finishing up with two trips in four hours,” he said.
Hartsfield is assisted by two other paid workers, one of whom makes sure the shell is distributed evenly in the areas of the buoys and another who looks to see if anyone is in trouble in the sometimes choppy waters.
“If they do not follow rules, if they shove off (the shell) too early, they are dismissed,” Hartsfield said. “I have the authority to dismiss them.”
While there are a few shells used that come from oyster houses, most of them are fossilized shells, mined from a quarry off County 67. Timmy Butler, from Coastline Clearing and Development, works to load the shell onto the boats, which have to be at least 20 feet long to handle the loads.
Hartsfield said there have been some concerns about the effect the fossilized shell has on the bay waters and how well it works at growing spat. But, he said, scientific research has shown the shell does not pose a threat and is effective in replenishing the oyster bars.
For their work, each worker gets $62.50 per load, with payment to no more than two people per vessel. The boats each work as independent contractors, each responsible for their own vessel. The oystermen are paid on Fridays, and they have to go in person to sign for their checks at the Apalachicola city offices, which processes the payroll.
“Guys have got a little better spirits in the program,” he said. “Three-hundred seventy-five dollars (per week) don’t sound like much, but it can make a difference.”