The Deepwater Horizon oil spill five years ago this month may be all but forgotten by those of us who buy seafood at the supermarket. But it forever changed the people who make their living trolling the waterways along the Gulf Coast for that seafood.

Even though the oil never made it up to Apalachicola Bay on Florida’s panhandle, much of the area’s once abundant oyster population is in decline, according to a University of Florida report. The delicate blend of fresh and salt water that helps oysters thrive has been out of whack for years, thanks to drought and water jurisdictional battles, and illegal catches of juveniles threaten future hauls. Yet third-generation oysterman Kendall Schoelles is unruffled, and soldiers on alone.

“It was like being with a Zen monk,” says videographer