Bay scallop season ends September 5th in St. Joe Bay

A very short Bay scallop season is underway in the St. Joseph Bay.

The season opened last week – it will close again on September the 5^th.

During the shortened season, the daily bag limit is 40 scallops per person or 200 per vessel, whichever is less.

This season and bag limit change is for all waters west of St. Vincent Island through to the west bank of Mexico Beach Canal in Bay County.

The shortened season and lower bag limit were put in place this year to conserve bay scallops in the St. Joseph Bay area which were hit hard by a red tide outbreak last fall.

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 southeast area of the bay south of Black’s Island.

Swimming, boating, fishing or scalloping in the restoration area marked with FWC buoys is prohibited.

 If you do scalloping this year, remember Scallops may be collected by hand or with a landing or dip net from open areas, and must be landed within the area that is open to harvest.

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