Recent hurricanes, oil spills and overharvesting have devastated Florida’s Gulf oyster populations, cutting off a key supply for many South Florida businesses.

Two Miami friends say they have a plan to help rebuild it all in half the time -- from an unlikely place inspired by the South Beach nightclub scene.

“It’s the most exciting thing I’ve ever worked on in my life,” said Fabio Galarce. “I’ve never done anything with so much momentum.”

The mission is ambitious.

“We are on a mission to save the Gulf oyster and localize oysters in the South Florida and Central Florida markets,” Galarce said.

High-end clubs, hotels and restaurants are all looking for quality oysters, and Galarce, a club promoter, teamed up with former professional baseball player Josh Wilkie to launch Everglades Oysters.

“So, Everglades Oysters is the southernmost tropical farm in the United States,” Galarce said. “We are the biggest off-bottom agriculture farm in the Gulf. And we are on a mission to save the Gulf oyster and localized oysters in the South Florida and Central Florida markets.”

The duo secured a 74-acre tract in the Ten Thousand Islands, where the Everglades meets the Gulf.

“We are the tropical oyster, the warm water oyster story is ours to tell,” Galarce said.

“Here we are growing oysters on the top water column in water that is brackish coming off of the Everglades,” Wilkie said.

Wilkie, a former major league pitcher, grew up around oysters in South Carolina before moving to South Florida as part of the tech industry. But the opportunity to farm oysters brought him back to his roots.

“We have an infinite amount of nutrients coming from the Everglades system, the filtration system, and then the organic matter that flows into here,” Wilkie said. “The water quality here is exceptional. It is of the temperature that the oysters thrive.”

Because of those conditions, the oysters grow six times faster than some northern farms and can grow year-round using a unique process.

“It’s called flip farm equipment,” Wilkie said. “It’s very cutting edge. It allows us to bring all the tumbling and all the processing of an oyster out here and handling out here and using the wave energy and natural energy of the ocean.”

The quality, quantity and local sourcing are already winning over chefs across the region.

“The overwhelming amount of chefs are supportive,” Galarce said. “We’re well on our way to over 100 restaurants that we work with in South Florida. Our goal is to have hundreds by the end of the year.”

Everglades Oysters supplies restaurants including Stubborn Seed on South Beach, but the company’s mission extends far beyond serving seafood.

“Fundamentally, the biggest benefit is keep the shells out of the trash because they don’t incinerate, they weigh a lot, they’re a big burden on the trash system,” Galarce said.

“We give the chefs buckets with lids and they collect the shells as they’re consuming them in the restaurant,” Galarce said. “When our driver comes the following week to do a delivery, they’ll pick up the consumed shells.”

The company collects empty oyster shells from restaurants and transports them to an avocado farm in Homestead, where they are dried in the sun for six months.

Keeping the shells out of landfills is one benefit, but the larger goal is restoring Florida’s oyster reefs.

“The big overarching goal is to save the Gulf oyster,” Galarce said. “Over 90% of the oyster reefs in the wild are functionally extinct.”

The recycled shells can help repopulate coastal oyster beds because oyster larvae are naturally attracted to empty shells.

“That oyster is filtering and sequestering nitrogen, carbon,” Galarce said. “50 gallons of water is being filtered by each oyster each day.”

The company’s early success is fueling plans for rapid expansion.

“This year, we plan on planting more than 2 million oysters,” Galarce said. “So by 2027, there’s gonna be an abundance of oysters from the Everglades in South Florida.”

For Wilkie, the work combines business with environmental impact.

“It’s a perfect mix of everything I love,” he said. “I love being outside. I love the water. We had this really cool mission to not only sell a great product but also do something environmentally impactful and meaningful and giving me a lot of purpose with what I’m doing.”

The founders say the farm’s success should not come as a surprise. Thousands of years ago, the Calusa tribe built its culture and islands around oysters and their shells, relying on the nutrient-rich waters flowing from the Everglades into the Gulf.

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