Frankie Pacetti talks about commercial shellfishing in St. Augustine, Florida.

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.

Freddy Manny has built a career that spans two distinct yet interrelated professions: sign painting and shrimping. His journey through the shrimping industry has equipped him with a wealth of knowledge about fishing techniques and the evolution of regulations within the field. Freddy has witnessed firsthand the effects of external factors such as Navy testing on the fishing environment and the resultant variations in shrimp sizes.

Freeman Bateman, Sr. is a seasoned commercial shrimper from Everglades City with a wealth of knowledge and experience in the industry. His career spans several decades, during which he has witnessed significant changes in the shrimping landscape. Bateman's deep understanding of the history of shrimping is rooted in his personal experiences and the stories passed down through generations. His insights extend beyond the technical aspects of shrimping to include the environmental factors that impact shrimp habitats.

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.

George "Bem" Storter is a Naples native and is 83 years old at the time of this interview. He hasn’t been out on the water in around 20 years (since the net ban) but he is known throughout Naples as being a wealth of information. He commercial fished before the net ban and has been recreationally fishing since then. 

Scope and Content Note

Narrator George Jones, of Key Largo, Florida, was a park manager and recreational fisher at the time of the interview.

George Watkins's family has been in the Apalachicola area since the late nineteenth century. They've witnessed the sponge trade, the loading of cotton boats, and a booming seafood industry. When George was a eight years old, his grandfather began taking him out fishing on weekends. Right then, George knew he wanted to be a fisherman. Over the years he has harvested just about everything the bay has to offer. But one day George decided to take up beekeeping. He says it was because he just liked honey. Like everything else George does, he threw himself into beekeeping with a passion.

Oral history interview with Glen Brooks. 

Glenn Evans and Mark Nease are two divers/boat captains with extensive experience and knowledge about the marine ecosystem of the Florida Keys. Glenn Evans, a seasoned marine biologist, has spent a significant portion of his career studying the changes in the marine ecosystem, with a particular focus on water conditions such as clarity, algae blooms, and visibility. His work has contributed significantly to the understanding of the impact of environmental changes on marine life.