Early morning harvesting of oysters near Bryant Patton Bridge over Apalachicola Bay. Apalachicola Bay covers about thirty miles of shallow oyster beds on the Florida panhandle. The bay produces 90 percent of Florida?s oysters. They are surprisingly old for warm-water oysters. Without the head-start of a floating nursery, it takes the oysters about three years to reach three inches. Apalachicola is the last place in the United States where wild oysters are still harvested by tongs from small boats. January 2013.