from Toronto Star:
Along Florida’s forgotten coast, an unthinkable disaster hovers offshore
Apalachicola Bay has been a storehouse of nature’s bounty for local residents. Now their future is in jeopardy.Published On Sat Jun 05 2010
Daniel Dale Staff Reporter
APALACHICOLA, FLA. – T.J. Ward’s University of West Florida major was architecture, his minor accounting. He lasted a year and a half before history turned him into a dropout.
Ward’s late grandfather, Buddy, sold Apalachicola seafood. Ward’s father, Tommy, and uncle, Dakie, sold Apalachicola seafood. And so, Ward decided after a brief dalliance with the professions, would he. He now manages the 13 Mile Brand retail location on the Apalachicola River.
“My grandpa and my dad — I didn’t ever feel like I could be any better than them,” said Ward, a strapping 21-year-old who looks and sounds a decade older. “They were successful in this, and it’s a tradition. When your family really cares about something, it’s hard for you not to care about it. And then everybody you’re around, they make their living off it too. My generation of the family isn’t as much into it, and I just didn’t want to see it go, really. I just want to make sure — I want to help this tradition keep going on.”
But for now, he knows, it is out of his hands.
The slogan of Apalachicola’s Boss Oyster restaurant, “oysters all ways, oysters always,” suddenly seems like a taunt. If oil from the BP spill permeates the water that sustains the seafood industry that is this Florida Panhandle town’s raison d’etre, there will be no local oysters — and, perhaps, no Apalachicola at all. ...........(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/819691--along-florida-s-forgotten-coast-an-unthinkable-disaster-hovers-offshore?bn=1
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