Bay scallop season begins Saturday

Bay scallop season officially kicks of on Saturday.

The season, which usually opens July 1st, will instead open on June 28th to give people an additional weekend of harvesting and a good excuse to visit some of the coastal communities where Bay scallop harvesting is popular like Port St. Joe and St. Marks.

And the harvesting should be pretty good in most places.

Scallop surveys done after last year’s season suggests slightly more scallops for 2014 in St. Joseph Bay and Steinhatchee.

There will likely be fewer at St. marks.

The St. Marks average has been decreasing since June 2012, which is most likely due to increased storm runoff in recent years.

Bay scallops can be taken in state waters from the Pasco-Hernando county line north and west to the west bank of the Mexico Beach Canal in Bay County.

The bag limit is 2 gallons of whole bay scallops or 1 pint of meat per person, per day, with a vessel limit of 10 gallons of whole bay scallops or a half-gallon of meat.

Scallops may be collected by hand or with a landing or dip net.




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