Hurricane Michael May Have Dealt A Deadly Blow To Florida's Nascent Oyster Farms

OYSTER BAY, Fla. — Cainnon Gregg felt a wave of anxiety at the prospect of seeing how much damage his oyster farm had sustained from Hurricane Michael’s fierce winds and 14-foot storm surge.

Climbing on his boat last week to venture out to his oyster farm in a spring-fed bay, he felt like he was going to throw up. But he tossed some beers in a cooler and pushed the boat forward, weaving through debris like staircases and satellite dishes that Hurricane Michael had haphazardly tossed into the warm coastal waters here. As a breeze tempered a hot sun on the cloudless day, Gregg felt ready to celebrate surviving the storm — or to mourn what it had done to his last two years of work and the 200,000 oysters he had growing in the bay.

His anxiety-laced nausea lifted when he saw his lines of oyster bags tangled like spaghetti on the section of the bay he leased from the Florida government. It wasn't all gone.

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