October 23, 2018 — Hurricane Michael blew through the Florida panhandle nearly two weeks ago, but it appears the major storm will have long-lasting effects on the state’s commercial fishing industry.
The state’s shellfish industries were especially hard-hit, as the storm impacted areas known for clam and oyster beds.
T.J. Ward, whose family has worked in the shellfish business for five generations, said his aquaculture business “is done for at least a year or two” in an interview with WBUR radio in Boston.
“The damage in Apalachicola is the worst I’ve ever seen, and locals that are older than me and been through more hurricanes haven’t seen it this bad,” he said.
The impact to fisheries isn’t just to human structures, as the environment can be heavily impacted by flood waters changing the shape of the landscape.
“We won’t know how this system responds until after. When you look at catastrophic storms, very often they can shift baselines in systems,” Duane DeFreese, executive director of the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program, told Florida Today. “Completely over-wash the wetland, upland transitions, and then it takes some time for systems to recover. The commercial fishing impacts on this could be extreme.”
The effects also will be felt beyond the Gulf for at least one company.
According to The Seattle Times, Michael took a nearly-completed 261-foot trawler and ripped it from the shipyard’s mooring in Panama City, Florida. The ship, being built at Eastern Shipbuilding for Glacier Fish Co., was supposed to depart for Alaska in November and start processing groundfish.