Scallop Season Could be Bountiful

The numbers are way up and St. Joseph Bay will provide an alluring enticement for scallop hunters this season.

The scallop harvest season began on Wednesday and will continue through Sept. 10 and St. Joseph Bay is likely to provide some mighty flush acreage for securing some of the tasty mollusks.

According to numbers gathered by survey crews from the Florida Marine Research Institute, who just completed their work June 20, the scallop count in St. Joseph Bay is nearly 10 times what it was last year, when scallopers had a rather rough season.

"We put (surveying) off as late as possible just so we can get a more accurate count," said Steve Geiger of the Institute. "The numbers are way up from last year and that is good."

Surveys effectively establish 20 transect stations, running transect lines 300 meters and counting the scallops on either side of the transect line, or 600 square meters per transect and 12,000 square meters of the bay.

Last year, the average number of scallops counted per station in St. Joseph Bay was 11.3, considerably down and similar to years such as 2004 when the bay was almost a scallop wasteland.

"St. Joseph Bay had a rough year," Geiger said in a mild understatement.

This year the average count per transect station was 97.2, not quite 10 times last year's counts.

And since the Institute began surveying the bay in 1994, the average count over the past 15 years has been 48 scallops per transect station.

In 1995, the average count was 96, but that sort of year, mirroring what is shaping up for harvesters in 2009, has been more the exception than the rule, particularly this decade.

Additionally, large scallops were already evident in portions of the bay.

"This year there were some patches where they were getting normal size scallops, two inches or so, and in other patches they found larger scallops, as large as three inches," Geiger said.

In laymen's terms, a scallop smaller than two inches provides so little meat it is hardly worth the taking. To accrue the desired amount of meat, a scallop approaching three inches is approaching scallop-eating nirvana.

Geiger said identifying the underlying reasons for the roller coaster in St. Joseph Bay is difficult, due in large part to the differences in scallops in Florida compared to, say, the Northeast.

In the Northeast scallops have growth rings so researchers can identify the age and growth of a scallop, much like a tree. Scallops also tend to live two or three years.

In Florida, however, scallops tend to live no more than one year and "we normally don't see a growth ring, we'll see algae" as an indicator of age, Geiger said.

Scallops store most their energy in muscle tissue and the process of spawning and growing they typically expend so much energy that muscles atrophy to the point of nearly disappearing and there is a high mortality rate, Geiger said.

The theory on the rebound in St. Joseph Bay, which was also found in St. Andrews Bay in Bay County - St. Andrews has been closed to harvesting for 15 years - could be found to the east, Geiger said.

"We are trying to better understand the trends," Geiger said. "We are trying to establish a long-term trend. What we see in St. Joseph Bay this year is more akin to what you see in the Northeast."

In areas of the Big Bend, such as St. Marks, the scallop counts are well down and Geiger said that provides a possible clue to the bounty in St. Joseph Bay.

"The Big Bend had an upswelling of water this year" - where cold water is pushed to the surface - "and I think that might have pushed the larvae to the west and St. Andrews and St. Joseph bays," Geiger said.

"We are just guessing, but that is what we think we are looking at, coastal currents carrying the larvae to the west. The other possibility is the scallops that were still there (in St. Joseph Bay) last year were just very strong and very busy over the winter and that does not seem likely."

Geiger added some advice for scallop hunters.

"They are patchy right now, so my advice if you don't find some right away, then move a ways away and try again," Geiger said, adding the annual mantra that the later in the season scallop hunters can hold off during the season, the better the chances of 1) finding larger scallops and 2) nurturing the continued bounty of scallops in the bay.

Scallop Regulations

Open scalloping areas on Florida's Gulf coast extend from the west bank of the Mexico Beach Canal in Bay County to the Pasco-Hernando county line near Aripeka.

You can take bay scallops only within the allowable harvest areas.  It is illegal to possess bay scallops while you're in or on state waters outside the open harvest areas, or to land bay scallops outside the open areas.

There is a daily limit of two gallons of whole bay scallops in the shell or one pint of bay scallop meat per person during the open season.  In addition, no more than 10 gallons of whole bay scallops in the shell or one-half gallon of bay scallop meat may be possessed aboard any vessel at any time.

You are allowed to harvest bay scallops only by hand or with a landing or dip net, and bay scallops may not be harvested for commercial purposes.

Unless otherwise exempt, you will need a regular Florida saltwater fishing license when using a boat to harvest scallops. If wading from shore, starting Aug. 1, you will need a regular Florida saltwater fishing license or the new shore-based license.

Divers and snorkelers are required to display a "divers-down" flag (red with a white diagonal stripe) while in the water. Boaters must stay at least 100 feet away from a divers-down flag in a river, inlet or channel. In open waters, boaters must stay 300 feet away from a divers-down flag. For more information on divers-down flag requirements, visit MyFWC.com/RULESANDREGS/Rules_Boat.htm#flag.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission encourages you to adhere to scallop fishing regulations and collect only the amount of bay scallops you are willing to clean.

More information on bay scallops is available online at MyFWC.com/RULESANDREGS/Saltwater_Regulations_bayscallops.htm<http://www.myfwc.com/RULESANDREGS/Saltwater_Regulations_bayscallops.htm>and http://research.myfwc.com/features/category_sub.asp?id=2598.