TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida wildlife officials have given preliminary approval to a plan to reopen Apalachicola Bay for oyster harvesting, five years after the waters were closed due to dwindling shellfish populations.

The closure of the bay along what’s known as Florida’s “Forgotten Coast” dealt a blow to an area that historically produced 90% of the state’s oysters and 10% of the nation’s.

Around the world, fish and shellfish populations have dwindled to dangerously low levels, as one of society’s oldest industries faces warming seas, global appetites and overfishing.

In recent years, waves of drought and the water demands of metro Atlanta and farmers upstream have sapped the Apalachicola River and the bay it flows into. Those factors, as well as predation and overharvesting, hel

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