The recreational harvest season for bay scallops in Florida will begin on Saturday, which is a week earlier than usual.
The season will also end two weeks later this year.The state approved the extended season this year to help relieve Florida fishing communities suffering from possible economic hardships due to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
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.
The season may be longer but all other rules remain the same.
There is a daily limit of 2 gallons of whole bay scallops in the shell or 1 pint of bay scallop meat per person.
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.
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.
This year the state would also like information from bay scallop harvesters and are offering an online survey where harvesters can indicate where they harvest scallops, how many they collect and how long it takes to harvest them.
The web address for the survey is posted on this story on the news page at oysterradio.com.
You can also email your information to BayScallops@MyFWC.com.
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