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For months, gulf oysters were off the plates at some local restaurants because the waters where they are typically harvested were closed after the BP oil spill. Now that much of the fishing area is reopened, oysters still could be scarce because supply is limited and prices have spiked.

Joey Molina, co-owner of Independent Seafoods, a 38-year-old wholesale fish distributor in West Palm Beach, said he's no longer ordering oysters from Louisiana or Texas because they're too expensive and hard to find.

Instead, Molina is buying Florida oysters from Apalachicola Bay and paying at least a third more than they cost last year.

About 70 percent of oysters eaten in the U.S. are harvested from the marshes, bayous and bays along the Gulf Coast -- primarily in Louisiana. But after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in April, state and federal officials closed hundreds of miles of tidal coastline.

The results are now washing ashore around the nation.

In previous years, Molina's clientele favored the bigger oysters from Texas and Louisiana. But the scarcity of those oysters isn't entirely a bad thing, he said. Now that his clients are trying the Florida oysters, they're getting hooked.

The higher salinity level in Apalachicola gives them a better flavor, Molina said.

Molina has raised his prices a few dollars per 30-pound box, but he hasn't passed along the full cost because he's afraid restaurants will pull the mollusks off the menu, which could hurt business for years.

nike shoes "If people take things off their menu, they don't tend to put it back," he said.

In some parts of the country, restaurants have nike shoes done just that.

"Sorry!!! No nike shoes Oysters. Thank You, BP ..." reads a sign at the Sea Breeze Fish Market & Grill in Plano, Texas.

"Our price quadrupled, and nobody wants to pay four times the price for oysters that aren't as good," Richard Wood, a manager in the restaurant's fish market, said last week. "We have other sources, but they're not full-flavored like the ones that come out of the gulf."

More than 80 percent of the seafood consumed in replica gucci the U.S. -- and almost 90 percent of the shrimp -- is imported, according to the National replica gucci Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

But when it comes to oysters, the Gulf of Mexico is king.

"We used to pay $21.50 for a 100-pound sack," said Gustavo Santana, general manager of the Flying Fish in Dallas. "Now it's about $36."

Red Lobster recently pulled oysters from its menus across the country. Another famous restaurant, P&J Oyster Co. in New Orleans' French Quarter, stopped shucking in June.

Other restaurants have raised prices, started serving oysters from the East and West coasts, or both.

At City Oyster & Sushi Bar in Delray Beach, managers made no changes to the menu in response to the oil spill, but they began listing the origin of each oyster to show that none came from the gulf.

The restaurant is now featuring oysters from Long Island, Cape Cod and Canada.

"We either do West Coast or we do Canada, the Northeast," Manager Bryan Reynolds said. "That's basically what we've always done."

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