FLORIDA’S FORGOTTON COAST: LIFE ON THE APALACHICOLA BAY
WORKING THE BAY
Melaine Cooper Covell
James Hicks
Monette Hicks
Monica Lemieux
Carl McCaplan
James & Betty McNeill
Charles & Rex Pennycuff
A. L. Quick
Henry Tindell

TOOLS OF THE TRADE
Wes Birdsong
Corky Richards
Bobby Shiver
Charles Thompson
Genaro “Jiggs” Zingarelli

PROCESSING THE CATCH
Terry Dean
Grady Leavins
Lynn Martina
Fred Millender
Janice Richards
Anthony Taranto
Tommy Ward

THE SWEET SIDE
Donald Smiley
George Watkins

VINTAGE APALACH
Seafood & Honey

WHERE TO EAT
Apalach Eateries

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Interviews & photographs by Amy Evans

This project sponsored by the St. Joe Company.

Born and raised in Eastpoint, Lynn Martina grew up in the seafood industry. Her parents, John and Sherrill Carroll, were in the business for almost thirty years. Lynn started shucking at her parents’ oyster house at the age of nine. She would get out of school and head straight to the shucking stall. But after Lynn finished school, she got a job in banking. In 1997, though, Lynn’s parents were ready to retire. They sold Braxton and Carroll Seafood to their daughter. Lynn changed the name to Lynn’s Quality Oysters. In the years since, Lynn has made a name for herself in an industry dominated by men. Still, between the politics and Mother Nature, Lynn faces new challenges every day. Hurricane Dennis in 2005 practically destroyed her facility. Her employees are all locals, many of whom are of retirement age. But Lynn feels an obligation—an obligation to her family, to tradition, and to the people of Eastpotint.

Listen to this 2-minute audio clip of Lynn Martina talking about how 2005’s Hurricane Dennis affected her business and the seafood industry in Eastpoint.
[Windows Media Player required. Go here to download the player for free.]

What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been edited for length. To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.

Subject: Lynn Martina – owner, Lynn’s Quality Oysters – Eastpoint, FL
Date: January 11, 2006
Location: Red Top Café – Apalachicola, FL
Interviewer: Amy Evans

Amy Evans:  This is Amy Evans for the Southern Foodways Alliance on Wednesday, January 11th, 2006 and I'm with Lynn Martina who is Lynn of Lynn's Quality Oysters in Eastpoint, Florida. Lynn would you mind saying your name and your birth date, if you don't, mind for the record.

Lynn Martina:  Lynn Martina, February 28th, 1964.

And are you a native of Eastpoint?

Born and raised.

What are your parents' names?

John and Cheryl Carroll.

And do you have brothers and sisters?

I have two brothers. One retired from the Navy; his name is Tim. And I have a younger brother, Tracey, that does construction work on St. George Island.

So how did you come to have Lynn's Quality Oysters?

Well, my parents were in [the seafood business] for twenty-eight years. My grandmother's health got bad, and my mom had to get out, and the only way she would get out was for me to take her business…And so it's kind of family handed down. My grandfather was in the business and then my mother and now me, so.

Have they each had their own oyster houses?

Uh-hmm.

Or the same one and you just changed the name?

My mom's was in the same place, and I just changed the name.

What was the name of it when your mom had it?

Braxton and Carroll Seafood, and they were there twenty-eight years.

Okay, so you grew up in the business?

Yes. [Laughs]

And when did you get put to work growing up?

I bought my parents out nine years ago [in 1997], but I've worked in it since I was nine or ten years old. When I got off the school bus, I would get in one of the stalls and shuck oysters until it was time to go home. And I'd go home and I'd prepare dinner, you know, as I got a little older in age. I'd prepare dinner while my parents were still working. And then I got married when I was almost eighteen. And I didn't start out doing what I'm doing. I worked with my mother for a while, and then I got out and went into banking, and then I decided that wasn't for me. So I went back, and then after I went back, that's when my grandmother got real sick and my mom had to take care of her, so [my mother] got out [of the business]. I bought her out.

What's your grandmother's name?

Toy Shiver.

What was it like growing up in Eastpoint?

A lot different from what it is now. When we were coming up we were raised to work, you know. That's all we ever did. And the seafood industry was all my mom ever did. My dad was in law enforcement. And then when he got out, he went into business with my mom. And they did real well for twenty-eight years. But we were always, you know, known to work.

Has the size of the oyster house changed as far as output, employees and all that kind of stuff?

Yes, it has. Actually my mother was totally wiped out in 1985 from Hurricane Kate when it came through. So that's when the building that I'm in now, that's when it was rebuilt. They had the older tin houses then, and then when she built it back in '85, she built out of [cinder] block. And she had more working stations, so therefore, she could employ more [shuckers]. And then when she got out, I actually took on more in the shell [oyster] stock than she did. I do a whole lot more in handling the bags and boxes [of oysters] than she did. She did mainly shucked product.

So what's it like being a woman in the industry having her own oyster house?

Interesting at times. It's kind of difficult because the meeting I just came from was all men. When my mom was in it, there was two or three, maybe, other women in it at the time, but it's predominantly men. You do have some wives with husbands, you know, that are running the smaller mom and pop operations, but I'm the only one that does it at my house. My husband works for the Eastpoint Water and Sewer; he's close to retiring. He has almost thirty years there, so he'll retire. And if things are still going good, you know, maybe he'll come work with me. That's the plan, so we'll see what happens.

Do you enjoy your work?

I do. Not as much as I used to because of regulation. It gets harder every day. You have to battle people to get your money, dealing with red tides and the hurricanes, and it has its ups and downs. It's been good. It's been good to my family. It's provided well for me. Like I say, I've just put one daughter through college and hope my son goes. The seafood industry has been good and it's good for Franklin County. It's provided for a lot of people here. It's all they know to do—all they've ever wanted to do. A lot of them have raised their children to do it. You have a lot less now doing it than what you used to. The younger generation these days are doing other things. They can see where, you know, the seafood industry is going, and it's sad to say, but it's slowly—you have some diehards that are, you know, willing to stick it out and keep it going, but a lot of regulations just putting—you know, putting us out. And the younger generation, like I say, are doing other things. I have the oldest of shuckers that are shucking left. Some of the ladies that shuck for me shucked for my mom. Some of them are as old as seventy years old, and when they quit, I'll be out of the shucking end of it, anyway. You know, I'll just really divide our product—already shucked and repacked or just handle shell stock.

Well and I know there's some folks who are using Latino laborers now. Is that an option for you or not?

Uh-hmm, I have used some. Some plants are—I know of a couple that are mainly, you know—but all of mine are local home-grown, home-town people.

How many shuckers do you have?

I have about eighteen right now. Well I had twenty-five stations, but then when I built my office back [after 2005’s Hurricane Dennis], I actually went in and knocked seven out to put my office inside the block building. So I lost seven [stalls]. So on a good day [I have] fifteen to eighteen [shuckers].

And are they shucking strictly the oysters that come out of the bay?

No. Probably eighty to eighty-five-percent of my production comes from out west, and it's because of the supply and demand. Our bay doesn't—we can’t we can't rely on our bay to be open all the time. I mean, just like now, the east end of our bay is closed because they're floating a barge down the river. They had to open the dams to rise the water to let the barge came through, so this end of the bay is closed. Because when it reaches fifteen-feet, they automatically close the bay. So you just can't count on it.

When the bay is producing and people are harvesting and getting good catches out there is it—I mean, obviously, [there’s a demand for] Apalachicola oysters.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

And so when there is good harvest, those [Apalachicola Bay oysters] are mostly sold on the half-shell, then? And the shucked ones are going to be [from somewhere else]?

Yeah, you do have some that are still shucking [Apalachicola Bay oysters]. You used to have a lot of husband wife teams that did that [the wife shucked what the husband caught]. Now, I have three that are doing that, and the rest of mine are shucking out-of-state oysters. Now from time to time, I will shuck, if I have an over abundance, you know, of the Apalachicola bags, I'll shuck those. I'll shuck those first and then get on my out-of-state [oysters]. But the majority of mine are shucked—the shucked product—the majority of it is from out of state.

Now you were telling before we recorded about Hurricane Dennis in July. That devastated your business.

It did. It knocked us out of work for about three weeks. And the State worked really well with me—with all the industry that was damaged. They let us get the plants back workable and then worked around us as far as being, you know, up to State regulation. They worked with us on getting ready, but that wasn't as bad as when Katrina hit out west, because when it hit Louisiana and knocked them out, I was in trouble, because I couldn't get the product in. Our bay was down; you couldn't get product there, so we were out all the way around.

So business-wise Katrina was worse?

Oh, yeah.

But then physically Dennis hurt your building?

Yes, yes.

So you're still, obviously, recovering from all of that?

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. The last figure I had was close to 70,000 dollars in repair work that I had to do just from what little bit Dennis did. So I couldn't imagine some of the guys that are totally wiped out. And a lot of the plants—you saw the ones over in Eastpoint that are just not opened. Unfortunately, those buildings that are knocked out now, two in particular towards—back towards Barber's Seafood, they sold their property. They closed one week prior to the storm. They got their money one week before the storm hit. And there's a lot of mixed feelings about that. A lot of the people think we shouldn't get out of the seafood industry. We shouldn't want to get out of the seafood industry, but they don't know what we deal with from day to day either. You know, it makes you want to get out a lot of times. [Laughs] It's not worth the headache. But the people that sold—one lady has Parkinson's disease now; they can't go anywhere, and they were in the business over forty years. They provided a lot of jobs. They're excellent people. One of the other couples that sold, they actually sold us our containers. That man had open-heart surgery this week—six bypasses, and now they're out. And our property is our retirement. That's all we have. We don't have 401-Ks and IRAs and big bank accounts. We don't have that. So what we're sitting on is our retirement and we were kind of—we're kind of in a situation with the County now, trying to get the zoning changed because there's some people like out past The Hut [restaurant, which has closed since Hurricane Dennis in July 2005] that are wanting to sell their properties. They're out of the business anyway, but because of the zoning the way it's zoned, it's seafood-related [businesses] only. They can't do anything with the property. And who in their right mind wants to go and buy that property for seafood related [business] now? They're not going to do it. So those people are just stuck. So they've given all those years, so why not give that to them, you know? But the County doesn't see it that way. That's kind of a sore subject.

So the people that sold their land in Eastpoint, what are the [buyers] going to do with it? They're going to sit on it until it's rezoned?

Uh-hmm. They can develop the north side of Highway 98 but not the south side. Now, one of the ladies that sold hers told me this morning, she said, “We had that zoning changed. You can develop on the water side.” I said, “Not according to Planning and Zoning; they tell us no, it cannot [be developed].” She said, “I'm telling you.” So I'm waiting on her to bring me the paper. I want to read it and see.

So where Lynn's Quality Oysters, how long has that parcel been in your family? Ever since they've been in business?

Oh, [Sighs] actually, my grandfather on my dad's side actually had a—he used to do smoked fish there when I was a little girl in the [nineteen] seventies. So it's been there—it's been in our family thirty-five to forty years, at least.

Well when you got into the business was it an obligation to your family to maintain the business, or was it something you really were interested in and wanted to pursue?

No, I really wanted to do it. And my husband has even asked me, he said, “I thought you were doing that because you were going to make money? What happened?” [Laughs] And after the storms, I didn't want to build it back. I was just that fed up. I didn't want to build it back, but I had people—I had families, you know, counting on me because they can't do anything else—don't want to do anything else, you know. Most of them don't have an education. The bay is their education. So I mean, when they were small, a lot of them didn't go to school; they went to work. And I really didn't want to put mine back, but when my people came to me and looked at me and said, “But what will we do?” you know, because I said  [to myself,] at my age, I can get a job. I'll go clean up the Dollar Stores, you know. It don't matter, I can get a job. But they can't. So I felt obligated to them. But if it happens again, I don't think I'll put it back.
And we're even—right now—the meeting I just got out of, we're talking about the County actually putting in an industrial park—a seafood industrial park to move everybody off the water that wants to. You have some that wouldn't move off the water. I don't know that I would. I don't know that it would be good to put all dealers in one [place]. Some think that will work. Me personally, I don't think it would.

That's a lot of egos in one place.

Yes, it is. Yes, it is. [Laughs] I mean you have dealers now—a couple that just don't see eye to eye. I pretty much work well with all of them. But they just—it's not going to work, and they, you know, if they choose that they want to go there to this place, that's fine. They should do it. But don't tell me I have to.

Right. Well, that waterfront in Eastpoint in the times that I've driven down there, there are just a handful of buildings standing now. What was the architecture—?

There used to be houses from one end of that channel to the other.

Before Dennis or just back in the [old] days?

No, years ago. Back in the [nineteen] eighties, at least, they were from one end to the other.

All seafood houses?

Uh-hmm. Now there's actually two that's operating.

How many were there before [Hurricane] Dennis?

[Counting to herself] One, two—six, seven.

That's a big loss.

Yeah, it is. And it's hurt the County. You know, they're finding other ways to survive, which might be good, you know. I think the younger generation needs to find another way because we see where this is going. And that was my argument with the County. I said, “Compare the amount of licenses you sold just five years ago to what you've sold this year.” I mean, they used to sell like 1,500 licenses, and I think they said they sold 500 [this year]. And a lot of those [people with the licenses] are not working. I mean a lot of them are in law enforcement or—they're just keeping those licenses, you know. If they ever let them go, they won't get them again. They'll be like a restricted species. So they're trying to hang onto them just in case. If they should ever want to go out there and work on their days off from their other jobs, they could do it. But it's fading away.

How has the fact that so many seafood houses went out of business or were devastated by the storm affect the ones that are in business now? Is there a balance of supply in demand now, or is it harder for you because there are fewer wholesalers?

Well, you would think it would make things better, but we were—I mean, we just came through the [Christmas] holidays, and we should have worked—I know just Barber's Seafood, normally during the holidays, they work until two or three o'clock in the morning. They were through by six, seven o'clock at night. And you would think, with the other guys being out, it would benefit the businesses that are still going, but that doesn't seem to be true right now.

Any idea why that is?

I really think—and too, the price of oysters is just outrageous. They are. But, you know, everything is up. It's time for the price to get up. The product cost is up, your gasoline is up, you know, your cost of running your trucks are up. So it's time that the price gets up, but it just hasn't—you just have less and less people doing it. And I think actually, the restaurants and the retailers, when the bay was down all that time, I think they actually found out they could put an extra piece of fish or they imported shrimp a whole lot cheaper than they could put oysters on their plates. And I think they have just taken [oysters] off of the menu. A lot of threaten—I know Red Lobster did that one year; they took them off the menu completely. They said, “They're too high. We're not going to sell them.” And they didn't. And I really think that's what's happened. I think they've decided, you know, they can sell the other things cheaper. So it hasn't benefited those of us that are still going.

Well what do you think about the future of the bay and people working the bay? Because if you can get the oysters that are cultivated in the Gulf [of Mexico] from Texas and Louisiana, and wholesale those—I mean, if the people stop working the bay or it's closed for most of the year can you still run a business?

I could still run—yeah, we could still operate. Because you do have some that's—when Texas opens, I have customers that prefer the Texas oyster over our oyster. Now, we have other people tell us and locally, we think our oyster is the best oyster in the Gulf. Well I'm sure Texas thinks the same thing, you know. But yeah, we could still work. We don't want to shut this bay. It's been shut [lately] because of this red tide thing. This has been unreal. I mean twelve weeks. It's never been that long. And are we going to look at that [happening] again next year? And the more that happens, the more people are going to get out of this business. They don't have no choice.

Do you think you have a different managing style or business style as a woman?

In some areas, yeah.

How so?

Probably in the general housekeeping. [Laughs] I'm a little stricter than a lot of men would be. Sometimes I can't say no, and that's a big problem of mine. I just have to learn to say no sometimes.

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Well what is a day at the office like for you? When does it start and what do you get done and who do you talk to?

I don't go before nine o'clock. I'm set back, and that's my rule. I go at nine o'clock and everybody knows don't call me before nine o'clock. And then I'll stay 'til five, six, seven [o’clock in the evening]—whenever the work is done. If the guys are just sitting around waiting on trucks, you know, I have all the invoices made and everything, and I'll go on home and leave them there. But generally, I stay there until I know everything is done. Before business got so bad, I actually had a lady that worked in the office with me. Well then after all hell broke loose in July, I just decided, you know, that I was going to do it all on myself. So I have, and it's just about drove me crazy. But I do all the buying and selling and invoices, payroll. I do every bit of it. [Laughs] It's a hard life.

But do you the satisfaction of employing the people and keeping that business alive in Eastpoint? Because wasn't Eastpoint the heart of the seafood industry back in the day?

Oh, yeah. Uh-hmm, yeah, it was. Like I say, it was just so easy for the kids to get off the school buses and go to work. And it was from one end of town to the other. It's just what everybody did. Not anymore. People are raising their children to do other things—get an education, you know. I even had someone ask me did I think my kids were too good to do what I do. And I said, “No, not for a minute. I've provided well for my children, but I want better for them.” And I want them to work. They were raised to work, but I don't want them in the seafood industry. I really don't. My daughter just graduated from nursing school, and who knows what my son is going to do, but I don't want them to do it.

Do they not have any personal interest in it either?

They hate it because they have seen me come home just crying. And even their dad told me one day, he said, “Either fix it or get out.” Because, well, you never would have known Donnie Wilson. He was a man here that provided for this county just forwards and backwards. He was a super good man. Two years ago, he sat down at the bottom of his steps with a cup of coffee and fell over dead. And he had been in the seafood industry twenty-six, twenty-seven years. And that's the first thing my husband told me when I would just go home at my wits end and he said, “Either fix it or get out.” He said, “You're not going to let it kill you like it did him.” And just the stress at times is just—I mean we battle—we just battle constantly.
I was paying 5,000 dollars a month for workmen’s comp insurance—just to give people a job. And I just decided—I just decided, you know, I'm not going to do this anymore. So I was all but for quitting shucking. I was going to knock a lot of people out of work but I said, “I'm not going to pay $60,000 a year before I get a dime for insurance.” And one of the local newspapers came around that [issue] because we were all battling the workmen’s comp situation. And a guy read an article over in Fort Walton Beach and his friend told him, he said, “Here, I think you might want to read this.” And he said, “I stuck it in my briefcase, and I said I'll read it later.” He said, “I didn't take it out of my briefcase again until I got home.” And it was the article that I had done on the workmen’s comp issue. He just so happened to call me. He said, “I think I can help you.” And he came down [to Eastpoint] from Orlando. He came down, and he hooked me up with a payroll leasing company. That's what he does. He's like a broker for payroll leasing, and he got me fixed up with them and now my—my workmen’s comp, I pay about—I mean, I haven't paid over 1,500 dollars a month. And without that man doing that, I would have been out of business.
But, you know, we battled that situation; we battled the bay being closed; we battled the State. If they come up with one more regulation, we just—we can't—we can't face anymore. Now they're talking about this post-harvest treatment stuff. We have to post-harvest treat oysters and have to sell them frozen, or you're going to have to heat shuck a certain percentage of your product. Well, I don't have the money to invest in that equipment.

Can you talk about some of the regulations that came onboard since you've had your tenure over your oyster house?

Yeah, it's been—and they always laugh at me, and I say, “Well this is another hurdle.” [but] whatever [hurdle] they give you to do, you do it, and then they'll put one on a little bit higher. You jump that one, and they're going to give you one a little bit higher. We have battled the stainless steel situation—everything right on down to the stands the ladies stand on have to be stainless steel. They shuck in stainless steel buckets with a stainless steel knife; the housing on the machines that they use have to be stainless steel, washed on stainless steel tables, right down to what you pack the oyster in, and [then] you put it in a plastic container. That just does not make any sense to me. But the State says we have to do it that way, so that's what we do.
I think the workmen’s comp issue has been the biggest. And the reason I have a problem with workmen’s comp insurance is [that] I can't tell those people when they have to come to work. I just provide a product. If they show up, I'm tickled to death. If they don't like what that product looks like, they may go home. And yeah, I can say, “Well just take your things with you and don't come back.” But then what am I going to do tomorrow? So you have to take it. But the State says that's my employee, and I argue that. I don't agree with that.

Why not?

Because they come and go like they want to. But the State says because they work in my facility—I provide them the electricity—they're my employee. I said, “Why not let me lease them a working station?” They don't agree with that. Just anything to get around the workmen’s comp issue. But the State says we have to do it. That doesn't make sense either, but the State says you do it.

So what do you like about what you do?

The every day challenge. It is a challenge. At this point that's about the only thing—[Laughs]—because it has gotten so bad. I used to really like it because I knew I would get up in the morning and know I'm going to make 200 or 300 dollars a day today. And now I wake up and say, “God, I've got to go back.” It's gotten that bad. It's just really—I'm just to a point that I'm just tired of it, but I just still feel obligated. My aunt and uncle work there. All they've ever done and I just—you know, I feel obligated to all these guys. I keep going back.

And all that you've invested in the rebuilding is a commitment [to the business].

Yeah. Yeah, because I can't do anything else with the building…We've even—in all this of thing arguing with the County, we've asked could we build something above and keep the bottom floor seafood related. Let us put some kind of shops or something above it, something we could rent out, so when the bays are down and we can't get product, we can still generate some kind of income to pay the light bill. They don't agree with that. [It has to be] seafood-related only.

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What about [this area], cosmetically speaking? The waterfront and people going through Eastpoint to get to St. George Island and tourism and development?

It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing because the people that bought all these properties didn't buy it for seafood houses. They're not going to invest any money in it right now. It's going—if they don't do something, or the County doesn't come in and demand that they clean it up, those places are going to look like that five years from now. Or next year, when the next storm comes through, it's going to all be out in the channel.

So some of that is property that's been sold that the new owners aren't cleaning up. [But] is some of it [the result of a] delay in clean-up from the State after the hurricane [Dennis] that was in July?

Yeah, uh-hmm. And two or three of them have just recently started cleaning theirs up. They were undecided what they were going to do, and I think a lot of them were trying to sell theirs. But I think they're still hoping because that is their retirement and it's people—a lot of the businesses have been handed down to their children. If I could sell mine, I could pay my parents off and they could live a whole lot easier. But as it stands now, I pay them a monthly salary or a monthly payment, and that's what they live off of because you have no—you have no retirement, you know. What you can do with your property is your retirement. It's all bound to change one day though. It'll have to because when there's no more seafood—I mean when we—when we are actually regulated out, which I believe we will be, they'll have to change so you can do something else. Well, are we just going to pay property taxes for the rest of our lives? And you can't get insurance after last year. God knows what's going to happen with insurance. Mine hasn't come up for renewal yet, but when it does, I won't be able to pay it because I was hit hard. But we'll see.

So what do you think that future is? I mean, do you think there are going to be wholesale seafood houses here?

Well, you have some diehards that say they wouldn't get out for anything.

But then the generation after them?

Yeah, the generation after them—that's why it will eventually come to an end because the younger generation is not doing it. They see the hell we've gone through, you know. They wouldn't—a lot of them—I mean, the harvesters, they have it made. They come in and they unload their catch on my dock, they go home, they're done. I've got to worry about is this product sold, get it in the cooler, is the cooler going to go out during the night, are you going to lose it, you know, is this truck going to break down when you're delivering. It’s always something else out there to worry about. I mean it's not worth it. Not worth it.

About how many oystermen do you buy from?

Right now I have about ten and that changes. If somebody down the road pays fifty-cents more a bag, they'll pack up, and they're out of here. But overall, mine is pretty steady. But you do have a lot of them that will want to check around, and then you have some that will work in two places, you know. They'll split their catch, so they'll always—you know, this guy down here may not have any sales that day, and you may have and they can bring them all to you, and the next day they may split them or whatever. A lot of them do that, but they have a couple guys on the boat. One will usually work one place and one work the other, and that way they'll always have orders. But that's a whole other situation.

Did you go to college?

No, I didn't. I got married when I was almost eighteen, and I actually quit school in the eleventh grade to get married. I went to night school and graduated with my dad. My dad took his GED the same night I did, so we graduated together and went to work. I had my daughter at nineteen, and I had my son five years later. That's all I ever wanted to do was just get married and go to work and have babies, I guess. [Laughs] And I quit at two.

And you wanted to stay in Eastpoint? I mean, whether or not you were doing the oyster house?

Yeah. Yeah, my husband is actually from Apalachicola. He was born and raised here, but I said “No, I want to live in Eastpoint,” which he worked for the City of Eastpoint anyway. So I said, “Well it only makes sense [that we live in Eastpoint].

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Do you see [Eastpoint] being built up like Apalachicola, with second homes and things like that?

I believe eventually it will, if they ever change that zoning. I think you'll see a lot of changes. Of course, they have a big plan. It was all planned out, what they were going to do with all that property [in Eastpoint]. And if they pull it off, it will be beautiful. It would be a big change, but it would be beautiful. And not to—you know, if anybody wants to stay in the seafood business that's fine, you know. Nobody is saying you've got to get out, but give me that choice. Don't make me stay, you know. And I feel like that's what the County is trying to do. By not letting us change the zoning, they're making us stay. But we'll do it until we can't do it anymore, and then we'll do something different.

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