# Harvesting Oysters



## tractortitan

Hey everyone, I did a video on harvesting oysters. This was my first time doing it.


----------



## rovster

That looks like the oyster bar just east of the tip of Bokeelia. I fish there all the time! Didn't know I could pick up oysters there, LOL! Thanks for video!


----------



## rovster

Just to keep the convo going, what are the seasons for them? Any rules and regs we should be aware of? Anything you should be looking for when harvesting as far as these are good and these are not (except for size obviously). I love oysters but always thought the ones down here weren't good for harvesting for some reason.


----------



## Gatorbig

Nice!


----------



## tractortitan

rovster said:


> That looks like the oyster bar just east of the tip of Bokeelia. I fish there all the time! Didn't know I could pick up oysters there, LOL! Thanks for video!


Lol...shhhhh


----------



## tractortitan

rovster said:


> Just to keep the convo going, what are the seasons for them? Any rules and regs we should be aware of? Anything you should be looking for when harvesting as far as these are good and these are not (except for size obviously). I love oysters but always thought the ones down here weren't good for harvesting for some reason.


*Minimum Size Limit:* 3 inches
*Daily Bag Limit:* Two 60-pound bags per person or vessel, whichever is less, except in the Apalachicola Bay area. 
*Season: *

Closed June 1-Aug. 31 in Dixie, Levy and Wakulla counties
Closed July 1-Sept. 30 in all other counties






Oysters and clams


Shellfish




myfwc.com





That info should get you started. There is also a map that shows you where you can and cannot oyster. I seen some folks oystering the other day in the wrong area. You definitely don't want to get caught doing that. As far as what to look for: I found that reaching down in about a foot of water and just grabbing a cluster produced the biggest ones. I was finding clusters of about three to five keepers each. It is time consuming but very fun and rewarding. It looks like you can harvest until last day of June. Rule of thumb is harvest in months that have an R in it. May/June/July....IDK. I need to do some more research on the validity of that. I can tell you this, they are damn good tasting. I made some for dinner last night. Soooo good. I did a little video of that too. I will post when I can. Hit me up with any more questions and subscribe to my channel if you can. I'm going to try and do some more cool stuff in the near future.


----------



## permitchaser

Looks like too much trouble to me. Same with scallops. Heck fly fishing is hard enough


----------



## tractortitan

permitchaser said:


> Looks like too much trouble to me. Same with scallops. Heck fly fishing is hard enough


lol, yeppp. it is a lot of work but I had to try it. it could be some family fun though. I gotta start getting my kids on the boat to do some active things. sometimes the fish bite takes a bit and they get irritated.


----------



## Gatorbig

Yum!


----------



## tractortitan

heres another vid i did. i got a bow for bow fsihing. it is super cool but the damn sheepshead are sneaky as all get out. i plan on doing a vid at night for sheepies. just waiting on the right day to go.


----------



## tractortitan

tractortitan said:


> heres another vid i did. i got a bow for bow fsihing. it is super cool but the damn sheepshead are sneaky as all get out. i plan on doing a vid at night for sheepies. just waiting on the right day to go.







Chefin the catch


----------



## karstopo

Sure miss cooning oysters since TP&W shut down Christmas Bay over here near me. Commercial harvesters in droves descended on the bay suddenly one day and for weeks did a number on the reefs, driving four wheelers out all over on the bars and cutting deep ruts all through the marsh, but TP&W decided to punish all of us for the stupidity of the commercial guys, the recreational oyster cooners along with the commercial operators.

Very jealous of what’s available to you. Enjoy them, nothing like winter cool water fat and briny oysters you harvest yourself.


----------



## TravHale

I used to tong up a sack or two back in the day, but haven't done that since the late 90s, and have kinda just forgot about oyster harvesting over the years. It would be nice to put in the work for a sack and throw an oyster roast for my neighbors tho..


----------



## Permit.Me

tractortitan said:


> *Minimum Size Limit:* 3 inches
> *Daily Bag Limit:* Two 60-pound bags per person or vessel, whichever is less, except in the Apalachicola Bay area.
> *Season: *
> 
> Closed June 1-Aug. 31 in Dixie, Levy and Wakulla counties
> Closed July 1-Sept. 30 in all other counties
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Oysters and clams
> 
> 
> Shellfish
> 
> 
> 
> 
> myfwc.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> That info should get you started. There is also a map that shows you where you can and cannot oyster. I seen some folks oystering the other day in the wrong area. You definitely don't want to get caught doing that. As far as what to look for: I found that reaching down in about a foot of water and just grabbing a cluster produced the biggest ones. I was finding clusters of about three to five keepers each. It is time consuming but very fun and rewarding. It looks like you can harvest until last day of June. Rule of thumb is harvest in months that have an R in it. May/


 Don't you also have to be careful of the small, undersize, juvenile oysters that attach to the "keepers"? I guess that you can knock them off before harvesting the oyster that's 3".


----------



## tractortitan

TravHale said:


> I used to tong up a sack or two back in the day, but haven't done that since the late 90s, and have kinda just forgot about oyster harvesting over the years. It would be nice to put in the work for a sack and throw an oyster roast for my neighbors tho..


I brought them to the fire station yoday to share with my crew. Some beers and bourbon would be nice.


----------



## tractortitan

Permit.Me said:


> Don't you also have to be careful of the small, undersize, juvenile oysters that attach to the "keepers"? I guess that you can knock them off before harvesting the oyster that's 3".


Yes that is what we did. Just used a screw driver to detach the cluster and smaller ones.


----------



## TravHale

tractortitan said:


> ...... It is time consuming but very fun and rewarding. It looks like you can harvest until last day of June. * Rule of thumb is harvest in months that have an R in it. May/June/July....IDK. I* need to do some more research on the validity of that.......


"
There’s no “r” in May — much to the dismay of oyster lovers who’ve learned to follow this rule of thumb: Eat raw oysters only in months containing the letter “r.”
But what does the spelling of a word have to do with the viscous helping of flesh you slurp out of a half shell?
The short answer is nothing. The life cycle of a particular species, the temperature and quality of the water in which an oyster grows, and how the mollusk is handled after leaving that water all can affect its health and taste — and your health.
“Essentially if you buy oysters that are grown in healthy waters and they’re handled properly, then there’s no problem with eating them any time of the year,” said Donald Meritt, an aquaculturist at the Horn Point Oyster Hatchery at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.

The adage of eating oysters only in “r” months goes back (at least) to 1599, when it appeared in an English cookbook, “Dyets Dry Dinner.” What it really means is: Say no to raw oysters in the summer. And there’s some merit to that.


During the summer, unrefrigerated (or un-iced) oysters spoil more easily, the bacteria that cause food sickness are more rampant, and oysters are spawning. Dr. Meritt said the cookbook was probably referring to European flat oysters, Ostrea edulis, which brood their larvae inside the shell. During spawning season, a European oyster may come with a surprise crunch: a sac of baby oysters in tiny shells.
But the native oysters on America’s East Coast, one of the most common being Crassostrea virginica, don’t reproduce that way. Instead, males and females broadcast their sperm and eggs out into the water, where the eggs become fertilized and develop.
During summer, many oysters also become “snot bags,” Dr. Meritt said. An oyster’s gonad — its largest organ — makes up 30 to 40 percent of its body mass when fully developed. But as seasons change, warming water may induce oysters to spawn, releasing the contents of their gonads.
This weight loss miracle leaves oysters watery and thin, like a plastic bag full of pudding replaced with water. Some say this affects the taste, but not Dr. Meritt: “Nothing is wrong with them."


If you just can’t with the gonads, there are oysters called triploids that don’t have them. An extra set of chromosomes makes them sterile. They don’t spawn, and they stay fat all summer.
No oyster is immune from dirty water, though. Pollution is always a problem, but certain types of bacteria that can make you sick or even die may be more prevalent in the summer, and there’s a bigger chance an oyster can become infected.
To address this concern, the National Shellfish Sanitation Program enforces strict guidelines to ensure safe handling for human consumption. Part of that is getting oysters on ice stat.
“There are strict icing laws in the summer to instantly reduce temperatures at harvest,” Mike Osinski, who runs the Widow’s Hole Oyster Farm in Greenport, N.Y., wrote in an email. “However, I simply do not ship to the city in July or August.”
Dr. Meritt said other oyster farmers also played it safe: If one person gets sick on oysters, the whole market suffers.
So “r” month or not, feel free to keep slurping — but proceed with caution.


----------



## bryson

We always used to go get our own oysters here in SC, but not nearly as much now. We'd just bring some 5 gallon buckets and get after it with a claw hammer (or pick, or even a big flat head screwdriver). Don't forget boots and gloves. It's really nice to get a few bushels of nice select singles -- the saltier the better. The best option is to rinse them off with salt water, but more often than not we just spread them out in a truck bed and sprayed them with the hose. If you aren't eating them that night, make sure you put them all on ice and eat them the next day.

As for the "r" month thing, I can't imagine getting oysters from our water in September when the water is 85 degrees. I like the water temp to be <65 degrees. Not sure where I heard that, but it always stuck with me and now that's generally my rule of thumb.


----------



## TravHale

bryson said:


> We always used to go get our own oysters here in SC, but not nearly as much now. We'd just bring some 5 gallon buckets and get after it with a claw hammer (or pick, or even a big flat head screwdriver). Don't forget boots and gloves. It's really nice to get a few bushels of nice select singles -- the saltier the better. The best option is to rinse them off with salt water, but more often than not we just spread them out in a truck bed and sprayed them with the hose. If you aren't eating them that night, make sure you put them all on ice and eat them the next day.
> 
> As for the "r" month thing, I can't imagine getting oysters from our water in September when the water is 85 degrees. I like the water temp to be <65 degrees. Not sure where I heard that, but it always stuck with me and now that's generally my rule of thumb.


Yeah, we always harvested in cold months.. Vibro is also much more active in warmer water, and i'd argue that mucking around with sharp shells and eating raw from warm water increases risk of exposure/infection.


----------



## 7WT

Nice videos and thank you for sharing. Couple questions. I went onto the FWC site and saw for example only two locations in area open, North of pine point area and the Myaka- both in the green areas. Rest of areas closed. I also was confused maybe by the regs copied here: 
*A bag equals two five-gallon buckets, one 10-gallon bucket or 60 lbs. of culled oysters in the shell. Statewide daily limit is 20 bags per person or vessel, whichever is less, except in the Apalachicola Bay area. *
That seems like an enormous amount. I am reading this correctly. Thanks!


----------



## tractortitan

7WT said:


> Nice videos and thank you for sharing. Couple questions. I went onto the FWC site and saw for example only two locations in area open, North of pine point area and the Myaka- both in the green areas. Rest of areas closed. I also was confused maybe by the regs copied here:
> *A bag equals two five-gallon buckets, one 10-gallon bucket or 60 lbs. of culled oysters in the shell. Statewide daily limit is 20 bags per person or vessel, whichever is less, except in the Apalachicola Bay area. *
> That seems like an enormous amount. I am reading this correctly. Thanks!


As far as I can tell the harvest limt you read is correct. That is a crazy amount of oysters. I wouldn't even know what to do with all of them. I took just a 5 gallon bucket and it was more than plenty. As far as open areas where you are....make sure you identify them correctly. I think throughout the year they open and close different areas. I can't see how being able to take that big ass amount of oysters is healthy for the ecosystem. It blew me away too when I read that.


----------



## 7WT

Yes I agree a ridiculous amount! And right can't be good for the system- when I think of the Chesapeake and all the issues there with oysters. I have a place in Maine where I can go out my back yard and dig steamer clams. To do so you have to buy a license- not much for residents- and you can only dig a peck a day unless commercial license which is limited. Also size and area and closure limitations as well as what you are allowed to use to dig as a tool. And boy if you dig in the wrong area the fish and game will see you and they will arrest you on the spot- take your truck etc. Well policed up there unlike what I see in Florida. Hey I really enjoyed both your videos- thanks again.


----------



## tractortitan

7WT said:


> Yes I agree a ridiculous amount! And right can't be good for the system- when I think of the Chesapeake and all the issues there with oysters. I have a place in Maine where I can go out my back yard and dig steamer clams. To do so you have to buy a license- not much for residents- and you can only dig a peck a day unless commercial license which is limited. Also size and area and closure limitations as well as what you are allowed to use to dig as a tool. And boy if you dig in the wrong area the fish and game will see you and they will arrest you on the spot- take your truck etc. Well policed up there unlike what I see in Florida. Hey I really enjoyed both your videos- thanks again.


Wow, they take it serious up there. It is important to preserve. I've got more vids coming out soon. I upload them to Bourbon Outdoors on YouTube. Check er out and subscribe if you get a chance. I plqn on upping my video skills with the drone I just got. Hopefully its not video of it crashing in the drink. Thanks for watchin!!!


----------



## markp1958

The colder the water the better that's why people use the r months. The ones that stay the most submerged are the best. As far as size limit you are allowed a certain percentage of small ones attached to larger ones in clusters. I think it may be 30% of the harvest can be under.
The is one of the maps I use:
Aquaculture Shellfish Harvesting Area Status, Division of AQUACULTURE - FDACS


----------

