The hard clam aquaculture industry centered in Cedar Key, Florida, is a dramatic success story. In just 30 years, over 180 growers produce 90% of the state’s crop supporting some 500 jobs with an economic impact estimated at $30.6 million. But its beginnings followed that of a failure. During 1989-1991, a federally funded job retraining program introduced oyster harvesters in Apalachicola Bay to oyster farming as an alternative to fishing natural stocks. Participants were to receive aquaculture leases to start their new businesses, but the local government vetoed privatizing bay bottom. The project was also mired with sociopolitical and technology transfer problems.
Further down the Gulf coast, a 4-H school enrichment project initiated in 1990 by women in the town of Suwannee taught youth how to raise oysters and clams. And the tide of anti-leasing sentiment began to turn. The following year, oystering in the Suwannee Sound was closed due to the presence of Salmonella. Women community leaders lobbied their legislators to acquire funding for a similar retraining program and provided support during several projects conducted in Cedar Key over the next six years. Women were involved in administering and managing the projects and chairing an advisory committee of representatives of local, county and state governments and agencies to address leasing, permitting, and other issues that arose. As a result, 850 acres of shellfish aquaculture leases were developed allowing over 200 project graduates the opportunity to begin a new way of life by farming clams and oysters.
This presentation is a tribute to the women who initiated and supported the clam culture industry over the years and also to those who represent the future of clam farming in Cedar Key.