No, the Florida beds are not shut down due to contamination — Atlanta sucked up all the water that used to flow into Apalachicola Bay and ruined the salinity for the oyster beds there. Apalachicola Bay used to provide 10% of the USA’s oysters. Now all ruined thanks to stinking too-big-for-its-water-sources Atlanta.
Beach erosion and loss of barrier islands is actually from silt no longer flowing down our rivers, too — and also from dredging shipping lanes. They say it’s Climate Change, but it’s the reservoirs, overuse of river water by cities too big for their water sources, also the dredging.
Sounds like we fled Atlanta suburbs at the right time, 1989. Lived in Marietta. Moved to Ohio for a job, and fell in the love with the genuine folks in the Midwest. Have stayed, but often consider moving back to the South. Just don’t know where or when.
I love the Panhandle but have decided against living in a beach town. Better to visit.