We boarded our scalloping boats at 9am. The temperature already had crossed into the 80s and the summer season humidity floated at a muggy 85 %. Lower than an hour later, I used to be engulfed in a hide-n-seek hunt with Florida’s small and stealthy bay scallops. Ever since business scalloping was banned in Florida within the 90s, the one solution to get a style of this candy meat is to strap on a snorkel and harvest them your self.
Within the water, warmth and time now not existed. Certainly one of my favourite issues in regards to the Gulf Coast is how heat the water is; there’s no shock as you dive by way of the floor of the water. As an alternative, it was a heat hug, engulfing me, welcoming me again dwelling. I allowed just a few loud and hole breaths to go by way of my snorkel earlier than I dove underwater. The one sounds had been the faint however acquainted rhythm of my limbs pushing by way of the hazy, salty water.
The sensory deprivation left me free to give attention to getting my eyes on the prize. After which choosing up the prize and placing it in my netted catch bag, after which repeating that course of till I had a bag filled with scallops nearly as large because the congratulations I’d absolutely obtain from everybody on my workforce.
I might been invited out right here to participate within the annual scallop harvest, which pulls 1000’s of individuals yearly to dive in and hunt for the little elusive mollusks. Again on the marina earlier than heading out, our group had been break up up onto two boats, successfully separating us into two groups. Whichever boat introduced in essentially the most scallops can be topped winner, however we’d all share within the candy rewards of our mixed haul at lunch. On my boat, we upped the ante by tacking on a bit extra-friendly competitors between teammates, too.
If leisure scalloping wasn’t already a aggressive sport, it was now.
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What makes Florida bay scallops so particular?
Florida’s scalloping historical past dates again over 1000 years, presumably longer. Shell middens – historic heaps of discarded shells – containing proof of scallops, oysters, quahogs and whelk have been discovered everywhere in the state.
As soon as upon a time, Florida’s bay scallops may very well be discovered as far east because the waters off Pensacola within the Panhandle, as far south because the Florida Keys, and as far west because the Atlantic Coast’s West Palm Seaside. Between the Nineteen Twenties and Forties, the scallop inhabitants was plentiful sufficient to help Florida’s booming business and leisure scalloping calls for. Industrial scalloping peaked within the mid-40s, however the excessive demand took its toll. By the Nineteen Sixties, scallop populations and the business trade had been struggling.
Sadly, extra a long time of unregulated overfishing and habitat loss adopted, and restrictions on scalloping weren’t put into place till 1985, when, for the primary time ever, the state launched closed season dates and harvest limits. It was nearly too little and too late.
By 1994, scallop populations had been near-decimated and drastic measures had been taken. Industrial scalloping was utterly banned statewide — that means Florida bay scallops may now not be harvested on the market, taking them out of fish markets and off all restaurant menus. Moreover, leisure harvesting was prohibited south of the Swanee River (and later, in 2002, in all waters west of the Mexico Seaside Canal in Bay County).
In Pasco County, which sits south of the Swanee, it took over 25 years to raise the leisure scalloping ban. After two trial seasons, the ban was formally lifted in 2020, although the county has solely been granted a 10-day harvest season — by far the shortest within the state — to make sure the native scallop inhabitants may be sustained.
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Suggestions for recognizing scallops
Scallop inhabitants numbers had been on my thoughts with each lung-busting sweep I took within the heat waters off Pasco County’s New Port Richey. Scalloping wasn’t the straightforward Easter egg hunt I’d imagined. Seems, scallops are professionals at camouflage, and, as a rule, when my eyes crawled the sand and seagrass, I got here again to the floor empty handed. It was solely day two of Pasco’s 10-day season, so the beds couldn’t be too picked over — was I simply unhealthy at this?
“You’ve gotta search for their eyes,” our captain, Mark Dillingham, informed us. He slid the tip of his thick, freckled forefinger down his equally-freckled thumb, till there was solely sufficient area left for a speck of sunshine to get by way of, demonstrating the minuscule measurement of the scallop’s eyes.“They’ve bought rows of actually tiny, actually vivid blue eyes that make ‘em simpler to identify, however you gotta seize ‘em fast as a result of if it sees you coming it’ll shoot away.” He laughed, however he wasn’t joking.
Florida bay scallops are distinctive bivalves with a aptitude for dramatic exits. When these mollusks really feel threatened or startled, they activate their pump-and-propel mode. This includes the scallop quickly closing their shells and utilizing their valves as jet pumps to shoot them backward, sideways, in any case — so long as it’s away. And also you higher consider that with 20 to 30 pairs of eyes, they may nearly all the time see you coming.
For me, the very best method ended up being to search for the unmistakable eyes after which slowly method the scallop with out reaching for it. Often, their first line of protection can be to clamp up — and that’s once I’d seize them and toss them into my regulation netted catch bag.
On this journey, one significantly deft scallop used its fast pump-and-propel escape technique to Houdini its method out of my catch bag simply as I used to be inserting it inside. It occurred so quick that I used to be simply left to look at the brainless bivalve frantically zig-zag backwards into the salty water till it disappeared.
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The place and when are you able to go snorkeling for scallops in Florida?
Pasco County’s small however rising scallop inhabitants could have made my harvest significantly difficult, however I’m all the time up for a problem. On this case, it made me recognize the scallops and their Floridian historical past much more — and indulging within the fresh-caught fruits of our labor style even sweeter. However relying the place and once you’re on the Gulf Coast, you possibly can set the problem stage to your personal find-and-feast (or search-and-snack) bay forage.
Florida bay scallops stay in seagrass beds at shallow depths between 4 and 10ft so that you don’t need to go too far offshore to get began in your scavenger hunt. Some scallop snorkel journeys don’t even require swimming; you simply wade into the water carrying a masks, plucking up shells as you notice them within the wiggling seagrass beds.
At the moment, scalloping is allowed in designated areas along the Gulf Coast, from round Mexico Seaside within the central Panhandle down by way of the southernmost border of Pasco County.
The healthiest populations are concentrated alongside the state’s Huge Bend Shellfish Path, beginning in Franklin County round St. Vincent Island and following the curve of the shoreline all the way down to southern Hernando County, slicing off at Aripeka. These areas have the earliest season begins (June 15 and July 1) and may boast the longest harvest seasons (over 80 days). The most well-liked spots in these zones are Steinhatchee, Crystal River and Homasassa.
The Gulf County Zone consists of all waters west of the Mexico Seaside Canal as much as the westernmost aspect of St. Vincent Island. Scalloping is barely allowed right here for about 5 weeks, beginning in mid-August — nonetheless prolonged in comparison with the 10-day season in Pasco County, which kicks off on the third Friday in July.
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How do they hold scalloping sustainable?
After three hours within the water, we’d reached our each day bag restrict; 4 pints of shucked scallop meat per boat (or 10 gallons of scallops nonetheless within the shell). Bag limits, both per particular person or per boat, are one of many laws that Florida makes use of to assist stop overfishing and hold leisure scalloping sustainable, and differ by zone.
Different laws embody solely allowing harvesting finished by hand or utilizing a touchdown or dip internet and implementing restricted seasons based mostly on the native scallop inhabitants. You additionally want a Florida saltwater fishing license or have a no-cost shoreline fishing license that enables scallopers to reap in shallow waters on foot with out the assistance of a ship. For vacationers, licensed fishing boat charters are your ticket in.
In keeping with Emily Abellera, a spokesperson for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Fee (FWC), prime priorities additionally embody scallop restoration.
“To extend depleted scallop populations in some bays and reintroduce scallops in different appropriate areas from which scallops have disappeared, FWC started a 10-year Bay Scallop Restoration Plan in 2016,” she defined over e mail.
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The present venture takes place within the Panhandle and runs in three elements: making a hatchery in protected waters utilizing a pattern of the present scallop inhabitants; rearing scallop larvae into monitored settlements; after which releasing juvenile hatchery scallops into “wild” areas with low pure scallop populations.
The company additionally conducts seasonal harvesting surveys, performs ongoing inhabitants monitoring and has created self-reported harvesting surveys that the general public can fill out to share info on the place they went scalloping, what their haul numbers had been, and the way lengthy it took them to seek out their catch.
“Yearly, FWC scallop biologists conduct surveys to estimate scallop inhabitants density alongside Florida’s Gulf Coast after the season ends to assist us perceive what number of scallops can be found to spawn and produce new scallops for the following 12 months,” Abellera added.
After we packed it in and counted our catch, we headed straight for the docks at a neighborhood restaurant that gives catch-and-cook — you convey your recent catch they usually’ll prepare dinner it and serve it to you at your desk. Captain Mark stored us busy throughout the hour-long trip by having us shuck and clear our scallops utilizing spoons to open the shells, take away the heart, and scoop out the meat as our stomachs grumbled.
In case you are the kind of traveler who seems to be for immersive experiences or likes to attempt native delicacies, snorkeling for Florida bay scallops must be in your listing. And, when you’re the kind of one that likes to know the place your meals comes from — effectively, that is one enjoyable solution to discover out firsthand.
(Oh, and in case anybody was questioning: I gained, by one shell.)
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Katherine Alex Beaven traveled to New Port Richey, Florida, by invitation from Florida’s Sports activities Coast.
