Scalloping to reopen in Pasco Zone after temporary closure

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) will reopen the recreational bay scallop harvest in the Pasco Zone on Wednesday, after a temporary closure that began in late July.

Barring any unforeseen issues, the zone will remain open for recreational scalloping through Sept. 24. The season had been set to remain open through Aug. 18, but has now been extended. The Pasco Zone includes all state waters south of the Hernando-Pasco county line and north of the Anclote Key Lighthouse in northern Pinellas County, encompassing the Anclote River.

“We appreciate the community’s patience with the closure while we carefully monitored toxin levels in the Pasco Zone. Public safety is our top priority, and we wanted to ensure that levels dropped below the safety threshold before we considered reopening the season,” FWC Executive Director Roger Young said.

“We are excited to give back all the season days ahead of Labor Day weekend and encourage you and your family to enjoy Florida’s beautiful outdoors.”

The temporary closure was due to water testing that detected the bacteria saxitoxin and Pyrodinium bahamense at levels exceeding established safety thresholds determined by the National Shellfish Sanitation Program.

The daily bag limit in the zone is two gallons of whole bay scallops in the shell or one pint of bay scallop meat — each limit is per person, up to 10 gallons of whole bay scallops in the shell or a half-gallon (4 pints) of scallop meat per vessel.

Vessel limits do not allow recreational scallopers to exceed individual limits.

This year’s season has been altered from last year, according to FWC. The agency approved a change to this year’s season based on results of the 2023 postseason monitoring conducted by FWC’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute and input from stakeholders at virtual public workshops, in-person meetings and other public comments.

The FWC at its February meeting approved a change to its annual scalloping season, extending the season from 37 days last year to 40 this year.