Restaurants from New Orleans to Tampa and beyond have praised about Apalachicola oysters that they are tastiest oysters around. But with passage of time, its annual harvest is on decline.

The local oyster industry is quite concerned about the depleting harvest. The industry is facing threat from differnet factors including water-flow issues, environmental concerns, health and safety regulations and economic realities.

"From generation to generation, we have worked here in this paradise and we are proud of our oysters, we take pride that it means something when the oysters come from here", said Philip Vinson, whose family's five generations are involved in this trade.

Vinson said that they have the best oysters in the world. They have quite good taste having sweetness with perfect blend of salinity in the water. There was a time when oyster harvesting was doing quite good, and harvesters were able to earn more than a thousand dollars a well. But now, the amount is about half.

Vinson said that scenario has changed a lot, as earlier it used to be very high-paying job. This decline is visible in Apalachicola, a fishing village of around 2,500 people. The village's waterfront is lined with small oyster- processing houses, side roads lined with small dilapidated boats used by oystermen.

But now, many of the oyster houses are empty and there are very few oysters boats present across the bay. Heavy, shovel-length tongs are used to take out oysters. The work is said to be quite tiring and takes toll on knees and back.

Due to declining number of oysters, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has taken some steps like closing some areas to harvesting restricting the season in other parts, reducing the commercial and recreational daily harvest limits.