Sunny weather greets scallop season opening
Last weekend was a heady time for Gulf County adventurers, as scallop season opened under bright, sunny skies.
For the next five weeks, from now until Sept. 24, the state waters of St. Joseph Bay and Gulf County will be teeming with scallopers, all the way from the Mexico Beach Canal in Bay County to the westernmost point of St. Vincent Island in Franklin County.
The one prominent exception will be the area marked with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission buoys south of Black’s Island, as there is no scalloping or anchoring allowed there since it is a Bay Scallop Restoration Area.
Scalloping continues to be allowed in the waters off Franklin County through northwestern Taylor County, including Carrabelle, Lanark and St. Marks, just as it has been since July 1. This region includes all state waters from the westernmost point of St. Vincent Island in Franklin County to Rock Island near the mouth of the Fenholloway River in Taylor County.
FWC officials say all practices and policies remain in place, with the most frequently overlooked rules regarding vessel limits compared to individual bag limits.
In Gulf County, the individual bag limit is two gallons of whole scallops, or one pint of scallop meat per person. The vessel limit is 10 gallons of whole scallops, or one half- gallon (the equivalent of four pints) of scallop meat.
There is no minimum size limit for scallops, and harvest is permitted only by hand or by using a landing or dip net. Legally harvested scallops can be directly transited through a closed area, FWC officials said.
Commercial harvest is prohibited, and recreational harvesters need a Florida saltwater fishing license to harvest bay scallops unless they are either exempt from needing a license or have a no-cost shoreline fishing license and are wading from shore to collect scallops. The latter is defined as being where feet do not leave bottom to swim, snorkel, or scuba, and harvesters do not use a vessel to reach or return from the harvest location.
With no preseason scallop survey to indicate how productive the season will be, it should take several days to see how the harvest is going.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.