Storm surge from Hurricane Dennis devastated Panhandle oyster processing houses in July, but business owners made repairs and kept going. Then Katrina all but dried up shipments from the western Gulf states of Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.

Now the red tide which has plagued Southwest Florida since January, and the Big Bend for the last two weeks, has extended its tendrils into Apalachicola Bay, which historically supplies about 90 percent of Florida’s oysters. Discovery of high levels of the toxic algae last week forced officials to impose a complete ban on harvesting from the bay’s famed beds. Officials expect the ban to last into at least early next week.

FS