![]() STURMER: Even today, I can say this is still one of the best growing areas in the nation for hard clams.ĪLLEN: With water conditions so good, the biggest challenge was cultural, convincing freewheeling fishermen to settle down on a two-acre sea-bottom lease and farm clams. As it turned out, though, the clams sold as littlenecks for middlenecks, thrived in the warm algae rich waters of the Gulf. So this is our clam shack.ĪLLEN: Until Sturmer and her colleagues brought Northern quahogs to the area, clams weren't harvested in this part of Florida. She's an extension agent with the University of Florida who came to Cedar Key to help oversee that retraining project. It's a success story in which Leslie Sturmer has played a key role. STEPHENSON: None of us had any idea how successful the clam business would be.ĪLLEN: Where mullet had once rained, the clam is king. But a joint federal state retraining effort began teaching former fishermen how to farm clams. SHAWN STEPHENSON: It was mostly mullet, but we would also catch sea trout, Spanish mackerel, sheepshead, but it was mainly mullet.ĪLLEN: In 1994, Florida voters approved the constitutional amendment banning the use of gill nets, which pretty much killed Cedar Key's fishing industry, putting hundreds of people here out of work. Southern Cross co-owner Shawn Stephenson says, 20 years ago, most of those now farming clams were hauling fish from these waters. These are going to Miami.ĪLLEN: Today, the vast majority of Florida's clams come from Cedar Key. ![]() ![]() I'm guessing these are Sacramento tomorrow. GILL: These guys are going to Vegas tomorrow. Then they're bagged and are ready to be shipped across the country. The finished product, Northern quahog clams, are sorted here in the processing room. In a year and a half or so, they'll be ready for harvest. From here, they're placed in large mesh bags and staked to the sea floor. He shows visitors the hatchery where the clams spawn and the nurseries where they grow from the size of a grain of sand to that of an aspirin tablet. JOHN GILL: This is where we start every clam.ĪLLEN: John Gill is co-owner of Southern Cross Sea Farms, a clam producer and wholesaler in Cedar Key. Today, instead of fishing, many here are farming. In the mid-1800s, a railroad ran here, carrying fish, oysters, sponges and other products to the East Coast. On Florida's Gulf Coast, it's near where the peninsula meets the panhandle. GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: For more than 150 years, Cedar Key has been an important fishing community. ![]() NPR's Greg Allen went to an island where former fishermen have found new careers since the ban. Gill nets are large nets that are suspended vertically in the water. It banned the use of gill nets in state waters. That reality set in after voters passed a constitutional amendment intended to prevent overfishing. ![]() Many commercial fishermen in Florida faced a tough decision 20 years ago: retire or find another way to make a living. For other uses, prior permission required. The area's now among the most productive clam farming regions in the U.S.Ĭopyright © 2014 NPR. Since Florida banned gill nets 20 years ago, University of Florida researchers have helped Cedar Key replace commercial fishing with aquaculture. ![]()
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