The Apalachicola Bay area is relatively rural -- it is known as the Forgotten Coast -- is home to a multimillion-dollar seafood industry, which depends on the preservation of water quality in the bay and the maintenance of proper balance of salt and fresh water. (...) The politics are complex, involving not county commissioners, but governors of three states and a variety of competing economic and environmental interests. The ecology is simple, however. A significant decline in fresh water arriving in Apalachicola Bay means salt water from the Gulf of Mexico will advance farther upstream into the bay and river. The influx of salt water brings predators such as whelks, crabs and oyster drills into the areas where the oyster bars are located, and they can decimate those oysters that survive the increase in salinity. If the freshwater shortage in the bay inflow becomes chronic, a century-old industry could die and Apalachicola Bay would lose some of the biological diversity that makes it a special place.
