Is there anything more delicious than floating face down in the clear salt water, scanning the sea grass for the multiple bright blue eyes of bay scallops?
Well, maybe cooking the scallops you harvest - that's more delicious and a perfect way to cap a day spent snorkeling and boating from place to place in search of the succulent bivalves.
Scalloping is a very social activity - you'll see boats anchored up in pods out on the water, sharing picnic lunches, beverages and scallop lore. The season opened early, on June 25, and has been extended 15 days beyond the usual season into late September, so there's still plenty of time to pluck the blue-eyed mollusks from area bays.
I went with a posse of friends a couple of weeks ago and had the most blissful day of scalloping ever. We put in at the boat ramp in St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge and motored out into the bay, where we joined a fleet of varied (and very interesting) watercraft in the hunt for scallops. Scallops are generally found in relatively shallow water, from 4 to 6 feet deep. We stopped at one spot, dropped anchor, set out the dive flag and tumbled over the side with our masks and snorkels - and came up empty. Same for the second spot we tried, and the third. Scalloping is fun even if you don't find scallops - there's a lot to look at out there under the water!
But doggone it, we wanted scallops and the fourth spot we tried was the charm. The give-away was the sight of three or four boats anchored up with people sitting on the transoms in back shucking their catch. Over the side we went again, and there they were - scallops a-plenty, as well as some beautiful sponge beds and coral gardens to investigate. We collected scallops until we figured we had enough for a good supper and then got back on board to clean them there on the water. Some people take them home to clean, but scallop guts and goo is really nasty and best returned to the sea whence it came.
Scallops are harvested for their adductor muscles, which control the motion of each half of the shell. This year's scallops have bigger muscles than those in previous years. Each person is allowed by law to collect two gallons of whole, unshucked scallops or one pint of shucked meat per day. The limit for each boat is 10 gallons of whole scallops, or one-half gallon of meat per day.
We took ours home, rinsed the salt water off our sun-burnished bodies, invited a few friends over and prepared a feast. Scallops
are best cooked very minimally, sautéed briefly in butter or olive oil with herbs and garlic. That's what we did with ours, adding a little white wine for zip and serving it over angel hair pasta with a big garden salad, bread and blueberry cobbler.
If you're hungry for a hand-harvested seafood supper, get out there and start scooping scallops, but first, consider a few things to make the experience safe as well as fun. Some folks scallop from kayaks, so a motor boat isn't absolutely necessary, but it can make the trip more comfortable and offer better shelter if a rainstorm rolls in. All members of your party who are actively scalloping must have a current Florida fishing license, and you are required to have a red-and-white dive flag to set out in the water or attach to your boat to let other boaters know people are in the water.
Be sure to apply - and reapply frequently - high-SPF sunscreen. Being in the water all day with your back to the sky can result in a very painful sunburn that you won't discover until you get home. Don't drink and get behind the wheel of the boat, watch out for other scallopers and be courteous at the boat ramps.
To find out more about scalloping in this area, visit www.myfwc.com and follow the links for scalloping. Good luck and happy hunting!
Tags: cooking, fishing, Nature, scalloping, St. Marks, wildlife
Kati SchardlKati Schardl is the Features Editor for the Tallahassee Democrat. She’s a true North Florida native – born in Panama City and raised in Marianna. She came to Tallahassee to attend FSU and earned a social work degree before yielding to the scruffy allure of journalism and joining the staff of the Florida Flambeau. Her cultural credentials include a stint as backup singer for legendary local band Cold Water Army (now, alas, defunct) and founding membership in the SPACE arts collective in Railroad Square Art Park. After more than a decade of serving as office manager and chief research assistant/go-fer for the St. Petersburg Times capital bureau, Kati joined the staff of the Democrat as music writer and theater critic. In 2006, she was awarded an NEA Fellowship that enabled her to spend 10 days in Los Angeles seeing plays and attending writing workshops hosted by the USC Annenberg School of Journalism. Kati lives in Midtown West and loves its eclectic funkitude and its proximity to her favorite cultural hotspots.
