“It’s like picking Easter eggs,” explained my better half when a friend asked Maria what it was like to collect bay scallops firsthand from their home waters. “Once you know what to look for, if you’re in a good spot, you start spotting them everywhere. You may dive down for one, and then see two more within reach.”
“Dive” is pushing it. While snorkeling over the shallow grass patches that hold the clams, you can usually just reach down and grab your quarry without interrupting your breathing pattern. In fact, some recreational scallopers actually wade for the bivalves, using their bare feet to feel around in the growth for the hard-shelled mollusks while traipsing methodically through the fertile shallows. Those who use their toes to do the searching may don a mask and snorkel to allow them to look under the water, but many don’t; just as some scallop collectors pluck them with their bare hands, others use a small net to capture the scallops.
On our recent visit to the heart of Florida’s summer scalloping grounds off Steinhatchee, we went “high tech” using masks, fins, snorkels and nets—as well as a late-model NauticStar deck boat to get us to and from the fertile fishing grounds. Our base of operations was the noteworthy Steinhatchee Landing Resort, located off the banks of the Steinhatchee River and minutes by boat from the bay.
As we often do—and highly recommend—when boating in an unfamiliar area, we spent our first half-day with the resident charter skipper to learn the local waters. Aboard his able Carolina Skiff, Captain Jim “Roundman” Henley showed us where the scallop beds were located and how to get there, and pointed out a couple of fishing holes along the way. After that introduction, we were confident to explore the waters surrounding this remarkable corner of Old Florida. And first on the list was heading down the Steinhatchee River to the bay to gather a sack-full of scallops.
The Steinhatchee River is one of several that empty into Apalachee Bay of the Gulf of Mexico along Florida’s Big Bend. For thousands of years, the Suwannee, Wa-cissa, Econfina, Steinhatchee, Fenholloway and St. Marks rivers have deposited soils rich in minerals and nutrients into Apalachee Bay, creating one of the richest and most productive eco-systems in the world. The location, where the slope of the Gulf bottom is very gradual, results in shallow waters extending for vast distances. With a mean tidal range of approximately three feet, the shallows produce vast grass flats that support a variety of species of fish, including shellfish such as the bay scallop—and excellent fishing for trout, redfish and other popular gamefish species.
The mouth of the Steinhatchee River, called Deadman’s Bay since the 1830’s, was the home to thousands of Native Americans who left large mounds of oyster and mussel shells along the banks of the river, evidence that the local bounty of scallops has been enjoyed for centuries.
Scallop Collecting
Bay scallops can be recreationally harvested in Gulf of Mexico state waters (shore to nine nautical miles) from the Pasco-Hernando County line to the west bank of the Mexico Beach Canal in Bay County. The most popular destinations for recreational scallopers are Steinhatchee, Crystal River and Homosassa in the Big Bend area of Florida’s Gulf Coast, where the bivalve mollusks grow and live in the shallow (4 to 10 feet deep) sea grass beds that are common to the coast.
The recreational season starts July 1 and closes September 25—an extension of two weeks over past seasons, offering larger scallops for late-season pickers. The bag limit is two gallons of whole bay scallops or one pint of meat per person, per day, with a vessel limit of 10 gallons of whole bay scallops or half a gallon of meat. And each collector must hold a valid Florida saltwater fishing license to harvest scallops.
The easiest way to locate and collect scallops is by using a swim mask, fins and snorkel and scouring the shallow grass beds adjacent to the mainland shore, which are best accessed by boat. Whenever a member of your party is snorkeling in the water around the boat, you must display the distinctive “divers-down” flag. Regulations dictate that the flag has to be at least 20 inches by 24 inches with a stiffener to keep the flag unfurled and displayed above the vessel’s highest point. Legal flags and all the gear are available at local marinas such as Sea Hag, located right on the river on the way to the scalloping grounds. Snorkelers must make reasonable efforts to stay within 300 feet of a divers-down flag on open waters and within 100 feet of a flag within rivers, inlets, or navigation channels.
Scallops may be spotted on or near the bottom of sea grass beds, usually lying on their ventral shells. Often they are found where the sand/mud bottom meets the edge of the grasses. Scallops have several neon-blue eyes and may try to swim away when they see you or when touched, but don’t go fast or far. Unless you relish a sharp pinch in a delicate area, keep collected scallops in a mesh bag instead of putting them in a pocket or down your swimsuit. (The no-pinch tip is a prime “call-out” candidate.)
Scallop Care And Cleaning
When brought to the boat, scallops should be immediately placed on ice in a cooler for the trip to shore, unless you decide to clean the scallops while on the water, for they are very sensitive to temperature and will quickly die if they are not kept cold. Even if kept cold, scallops will usually die shortly after being placed on ice, especially if fresh water gets into their shells. The best way to store your scallops is to position them in a cooler above the accumulating melt water from any ice. A moist towel can be placed between the ice and scallops to temper the thermal shock that will immediately kill the scallops and/or absorb any seepage from the scallops. The intent here isn’t so much to keep the scallops alive, but to reduce bacterial growth.
Placing scallops on ice also makes them easier to open, because the muscle holding the shells together relaxes. A scallop, clam or oyster knife, or even a teaspoon, can be used to open the shells and cut the white muscle free, discarding the shells and unwanted soft parts. Although most Floridians only eat the scallop muscle, in many other parts of the world the entire contents of the mussel is consumed at once, much like we eat clams and oysters. If this is done, scallops should be cooked because many open harvest areas for scallops are not classified for harvest of other shellfish species.
Scallop Prep
First, don’t waste any time getting your scallops on ice. Not only does it keep them fresh, the cold causes them to open up. Next, with the dark side of the scallop up, hinge facing away from you, insert a knife blade or sharpened spoon between the top and bottom shells from the right and cut away the muscle at its attachment to the top shell. Remove the top shell and discard.
Remove the dark innards by gently scraping from hinge to front with a spoon or scallop knife. They will peel cleanly from the muscle if you carefully scrape over the muscle from hinge to front, pinching the innards to the knife or spoon with your thumb as you pass over the cut surface of the muscle. This will leave the clean muscle attached to the bottom shell, which you simply scrape from the bottom shell.
Once removed from the shell, you can batter and deep fry the pinky-finger-sized mussel muscles, or you can broil them in butter and garlic. Either way they only take a couple of minutes at most. Some people prefer to leave the muscle attached in the shell, put a drop of soy sauce on the meat, surround it with crabmeat stuffing, and broil it for a minute or two, shell and all. You can also drop the meat into your simmering spaghetti sauce a couple of minutes before serving.
No matter how you cook them, a meal of self-caught, self-cleaned, self-cooked scallops provides a fitting end to a rewarding summer day on the water in this off-forgotten corner of the Sunshine State.
