St. Joe Bay Scallop season will be very short this year

                There will be a very short bay scallop season in St. Joe Bay this year.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission this week approved a number of measures to conserve bay scallops in the St. Joseph Bay area which were hit hard by a red tide outbreak last fall.

The measures include delaying and shortening the recreational bay scallop season so it will open on August 22nd and run through September the 5^th.

The daily bag limit will be cut to 40 scallops per person or 200 per vessel, whichever is less, in all waters west of St. Vincent Island through the west bank of Mexico Beach Canal in Bay County. 

The state had planned to completely cancel the bay scallop season this year to give bay scallops some time to come back, but after a lot of feedback from businesses and residents in the area, agreed to the shortened season.

The FWC is currently conducting restoration efforts in the bay.

Researchers have already collected 650 scallops and placed them in cages in the bay to help promote spawning, and will continue to collect more scallops for restoration purposes.

Caged scallops will be marked.

Tampering with or scalloping in areas near cages will be prohibited.

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