A. L. "Unk" Quick has been an oysterman all of his life. Originally from Wewahitchka, Florida, his family moved to Eastpoint in 1949, when Unk was just nine years old. He quit school at the age of sixteen and started oystering the very next day. In 1964 he proposed to his wife, Gloria, and she started shucking oysters right away. They have worked together ever since. He catches, she shucks. Some days, they'll go out on the bay together. He catches, she culls. In the off-season they pick up odd jobs and do yard work. Whatever they're doing, they make a good team.

Born to a barber and a beautician in 1942, Corky Richards did not grow up in the seafood industry, but he got in it as soon as he could. Corky's family moved to Apalachicola when he was a teenager, and he immediately got to work on the bay. Using his carpentry skills, he began to make his own oyster tongs. One year in the off-season, a local marine supply company asked him to make tongs for the store. Soon, Corky was making and selling tongs to oystermen throughout Franklin County. Business was so good that Corky opened a woodworking shop.

Anthony Taranto is the son of Italian immigrants. His parents, Joseph and Madeline Taranto, met in Apalachicola. In 1923 they opened their own seafood house, Taranto's Seafood, and Anthony was born nine years later. As a kid, Anthony remembers his father employing more than fifty shuckers, mostly African Americans. When he was old enough, he helped pack shrimp. They would pour the shrimp into wooden barrels, pack them with ice, and send them to New York on a train. Anthony took over his father's seafood business as an adult. But today, Taranto's Seafood is closed.

James McNeill Jr. was born at Indian Pass, just west of Apalachicola, in 1924. His father, James McNeill Sr., was originally from North Carolina. Working the rivers rafting timber downstream, James Sr. eventually made his way to Florida. Soon after, he got into the turpentine business and eventually acquired some 13,000 acres of Florida wilderness. James Sr. passed away in 1941. In 1947 James Jr. married Betty Lane. Together, they established the Indian Pass Seafood Company.

Carl McCaplan's family has relied on of the Apalachicola Bay for generations. Born in 1968, Carl practically grew up on the water. He remembers going out to oyster with his father when he was just eight years old. As a teenager, Carl moved away, looking for a different life. But the people and the place drew him back. He returned to Apalachicola and invested in his future. In the late 1980s Carl worked with the Oyster Association to replant the oyster beds. Twenty years later, oystermen are now harvesting those areas.

Originally from Tennessee, Charles Pennycuff's parents moved their family to Eastpoint in 1971. Since Charles first saw the bay at the age of seventeen, he has made his living from it. Over the years, Charles has done it all. He has shrimped, oystered, crabbed, and even grunted for worms. His son, Rex, worked the bay, too. Like a lot of folks, though, they wanted something more reliable. In 1993 Charles opened Fisherman's Choice Bait & Tackle in Eastpoint. He has no employees, only his family.

Born in 1942, Charles Thompson spent thirty-plus years of his life as a shrimper. In the 1980s, he began making his own nets. Soon, though, Charles could see that the shrimp business was changing. In 1998 he decided to sell his last boat. Not wanting to sit idle, he began repairing nets and making new nets for the shrimpers in the area. At that time, other net shops in Franklin County were closing. A local net maker by the name of James Copeland passed his skills and his patterns on to Charles. Soon, Charles had a new demand for his handiwork.

The son of farmers, Donald Smiley was not born with the bay in his blood. He spent his childhood in the inland town of Wewahitchka, and, as a young man, Donald worked as an air conditioning technician in Panama City. But in 1980 he moved to Franklin County and began oystering. Donald says he made more money in one day of oystering than he could make in a week at doing A/C repair. He harvested oysters for the next thirteen years, until in 1993 the industry was changing so much that Donald wanted out. As a hobby, he started tinkering with bees.

Fred Millender has been working on the bay since he was a boy. Born in Carrabelle, Florida, in 1929, Fred's family saw opportunity in Eastpoint and moved there in 1942. At one time, the Millender family had three seafood houses along the bay. When Fred managed his own place, he had twenty-nine boats harvesting oysters. The seafood industry was booming in Eastpoint. Recently, though, among other problems, hurricanes have taken their toll on the area. But Fred is a survivor. He has found a way to keep Fred's Best Seafood afloat. Today, his daughter Susan operates the seafood house.

Jiggs Zingarelli's grandfather came to Florida from Puglia, Italy, sometime in the late nineteenth century. Jiggs's parents settled in Apalachicola, where he was born in 1915. His nickname references his childhood habit of dancing Irish jigs. He served in the Army during World War II. When Jiggs returned home, he looked to printing as a trade. He went to Nashville to learn the craft of linotype and opened Franklin County Press in 1946. Soon, he began printing the oyster tags for the seafood houses in the area, and he has been printing them ever since.