Kendall Schoelles

Tonging for wild oysters in Apalachicola Bay

I met Kendall Schoelles around dawn at 14.2 miles west of the John Gorrie Memorial Bridge on Route 30A. (That's how they measure distances in Apalachicola, Florida.) We drove his pickup down a packed dirt path to a marshland dock, where we boarded Schoelles' shallow-draft oyster boat. We were headed for the oystering grant that's been in his family since the late 19th century. The Schoelles family grant used to be 1,100 acres; after government takings, it's down to 158. That's enough to keep Kendall and his brother harvesting enough oysters to make a living. Most Apalachicola oystermen, like those pictured above, have to make do with the public bars. Apalachicola Bay oysters are the pride of the Gulf of Mexico – plump, sweet, and...Read More