State wildlife commission approves new 40-day Pasco scallop season
There will likely be more need for sunscreen and garlic butter this summer now that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has approved a 40-day scallop season in the waters off Pasco County.
The season, which will run from July 10 to Aug. 18, got the stamp of approval from the commission on Wednesday morning. Pasco County Commissioner Jack Mariano attended the meeting, urging approval of the longer season and praising the board for its vote. He also thanked the commission staff who concluded that the longer season was sustainable.
For 25 years, Pasco County was not able to have a scallop season, with the agency determining that the shellfish didn’t populate Pasco waters at a high enough concentration to sustain a harvest at that time.
In 2016, the agency started to review how to manage the annual crop of scallops, considering community interest and the stability of the population. As the review continued, the agency detected strong support for seasons tied to regions.
Then in 2018, a 10-day season was approved for Pasco. In 2022, Mariano pushed the state to extend the short season and he succeeded getting a 31-day season approved. This 40-day season will be the longest since the popular activity returned.
“They listened to the data and the research of the environment. We can support this,” Mariano said shortly after speaking to the commission. “I give them a lot of credit for that.”
During a public hearing on the season several months ago, the idea of the longer season also received support from tourism promoters.
“We were given a gift five years ago,” said Wendy Longman, referring to when a shortened scallop season returned to Pasco. “I’m very passionate about being ecologically sensitive.” Longman is a boat charter rental business owner and long-time member of the Pasco Tourist Development Council.
Mariano said he immediately got word to the Pasco County Tourist Development Council, which has supported the extension. Scalloping has been a big draw to tourists who just need a boat ride off the coast but don’t need expensive equipment to enjoy the hunt. Scalloping generally requires a snorkel, swim fins, a bag to collect them and a fishing license.
This year, there was also community support to move the start of the season back from the Fourth of July holiday weekend, when boaters take to the water anyway to kick off the summer season. Last year, a serious accident in Homosassa over the holiday sparked discussion about a later scalloping season start for safety reasons.
Earlier this week, Mariano told his fellow commissioners that he expected the vote to go the county’s way. He also said that while several coastal counties had scallop seasons, he was pushing for Pasco to be the only county with a scallop festival. Mariano said that is in the works and the likely venue will be at Sunwest Park at the northwest corner of the county.
“I think it would be the perfect place,” he said.
“Along with moving away from the Independence Day holiday, the longer season will increase both the public’s safety and access to one of our state’s most fun family resources,” said wildlife Commissioner Preston Farrior in a news release. “There will be many positive impacts for the local communities.”
The Pasco scallop region includes all state waters between the Hernando and Pasco county line and the Anclote Key Lighthouse in northern Pinellas County, as well as all waters of the Anclote River.
Scallops are shellfish related to oysters, clams and mussels. The primary scallop concentrations along the west coast are in Steinhatchee in Taylor County and Homosassa in Citrus County. Pasco has had a smaller population.
Wildlife commission officials have said that scallop populations vary greatly from season to season and region to region. While the numbers tend to fluctuate over a three- to five-year period, they said recently that Pasco’s population was just coming off the peak of their abundance.
