Tag Archives: Apalachicola River
Foreshadowing of a fire
A funny thing happened last month, at the June 15 meeting of the Apalachicola Volunteer Fire Department. The firefighters were talking about whether the department could use a fire boat, and Chief George Watkins told the story of how 46 years ago when he was still in high school, the 72-foot Kingfisher burned in the Apalachicola River. On Tuesday, June 16, Watkins and Jimmy Moses were working on Little St. George Island when they got a page, “We didn’t see any smoke, but about the time we got almost to the bridge it blew up and we saw black smoke,” Watkins said. “We knew it was bad.” The 45-foot Desperado, captained by Michael Redman, was in in the process of coming up Scipio Creek from Port St. Joe when the mishap occurred. >click to read< 07:53
Florida warns of Apalachicola River’s ‘doom’ if Georgia isn’t forced to release more water, Looks to US Supreme Court
Warning that a special master’s recommendation would “spell doom” for the Apalachicola River, Florida wants the U.S. Supreme Court to require Georgia to share more water in a river system that links the two states. “The harm to the Bay’s oyster fisheries is undeniable. Apalachicola is renowned across America for its oysters, which account for 90% of Florida’s oyster harvest and 10% of the nation’s,” “What’s more, oysters, and oystering, have created a distinct way of life in Apalachicola passed down from generation-to-generation; whole communities depend on the fisheries for their economic livelihood. The oyster is to Apalachicola what the lobster is to many New England towns.” >click to read< 10:23
Local leaders encouraged by water wars arguments in U.S. Supreme Court hearing
Florida lawyers fared well in last week’s U.S. Supreme Court hearing on the “water wars” between the state and Georgia, officials who sat through the hearing said. Rep. Neal Dunn, who was among them, said he felt Florida has a real shot of winning the case.,, “Georgia came off some pretty harsh questioning – a lot of harsh interrogatories, and a lot of apparent disbelief on the part of the justices in what they were hearing from Georgia.”,,, Florida says a steady supply of water is the last chance for Apalachicola Bay’s struggling oyster industry and endangered species. >click here to read< 17:45
Water War: Florida and Georgia to blame for oyster loss
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster threatened to spread oil from Texas to Florida and kill every shrimp, snapper and oyster in the Gulf of Mexico. Oystermen in Florida freaked out and, joined by fishermen from as far away as Texas, scraped every possible oyster — legal-sized or not — from the bottom of Apalachicola Bay. The still-poor condition of the bay and the oyster industry serves as the crux of the water war trial underway in this coastal New England town. Ralph Lancaster Jr., the special master assigned by the U.S. Supreme Court to remedy the 27-year-old interstate dispute, will ultimately decide who is to blame for the industry’s collapse. The trial’s first week ended Friday with a detailed examination of oyster fishing and Florida’s role in allowing the long-term degradation of the industry. It resumes Monday with the same focus. Florida says a lack of freshwater coming down the Apalachicola River from Georgia is to blame for the bay’s poor health. Georgia counters that over-fishing and lax management of oystering rules caused the damage. Read the story here 18:54
Georgia asks the U.S. Supreme Court to stay out of the latest legal battle in its 24-year fight over water rights with neighboring Florida.
Georgia filed its response last week to Florida’s request for the high court to intervene in deciding how they share water that flows across the state line where the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers merge to form the Apalachicola River. Florida officials said in an October complaint their state needs immediate relief as growing water consumption by metro Atlanta threatens Florida’s oyster fishery. “Florida has brought its case against the wrong party, in the wrong court, and at the wrong time,” the Georgia lawyers wrote in their legal response. Read [email protected] 16:45
U.S. Senate hearing offers ‘unprecedented opportunity’ – Apalachicola River water woes take center stage
Florida Congressional leaders will be in Apalachicola on Tuesday for a U.S. Senate committee field hearing on the impact of historic-low freshwater flows that have left the Apalachicola River parched and its famed oyster-producing bay devastated. [email protected]
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is laying the blame – Oystermen React to the Report
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is laying the blame for the oyster crisis in Franklin County, squarely on the US Army Corps of Engineers. In their final report this week to the National Marine Fisheries, wildlife experts say the lack of fresh water coming out of the Apalachicola River is killing the oysters in Apalachicola bay. @wghj
APALACHICOLA, Fla: A Fight Over Water, and to Save a Way of Life
NYT – “This bay would be filled with boats,” said Mr. Shiver, 36, whose father and grandfather plunged nets, set traps and dipped tongs into the water along this stretch of the Florida Panhandle. “There used to be oysters everywhere in here, and now there is none.” In a budding ecological crisis, the oyster population has drastically declined in Apalachicola Bay, one of the country’s major estuaries and the cradle of Florida’s prized oyster industry. continued
