EASTPOINT, Fla. — The fish swimming past Bruce Rotella's boat these days aren't supposed to be there.
As Rotella tongs for oysters on the shallow sandbars near the mouth of Apalachicola Bay, he's seeing mullet. Other fishermen are catching grouper, typically a deep-water fish.
"They're running from something, and it's oil," Rotella said. "Oysters stay on the bar. They can't hide from oil."
Oystermen working the beds at Florida's premier shellfish location — Apalachicola Bay, where the state's Panhandle begins — have seen no trace of the oil gushing from a damaged BP well off the Louisiana coast. One oysterman joked he's seen only a floating bottle of Havoline motor oil.
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Photo by Bart Jansen, Florida Today