Article originally published in the Panama City News Herald.
PANAMA CITY - “They grab ahold of the net,” Joie Thacker said as she dumped 95 scallops into a bucket for scientists from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to count and then place in protective cages.
On further inspection, Kelly Williams, a scallop biologist for the FWC, was thrilled to see how large and healthy they all looked. So far, Thacker, her daughter and niece caught the most scallops of Saturday’s Scallop Rodeo in St. Andrews State Park.
The Scallop Rodeo helps with scallop restoration efforts by taking wild scallops and placing them in predator exclusion cages. Volunteers are given a temporary permit and asked to bring back no more than 100 scallops, all alive.
The 3-foot by 3-foot cages prevent the scallops from being eaten and helps them reproduce. Scallops are broadcast spawners, meaning they release their eggs and sperm into the water in the hopes the two will mix and create viable larva. When populations are as low as they are now in St. Andrews Bay, it often means scallops are far away from one another, decreasing the odds of fertilization. Living 500 to a cage increases their odds.
For some, volunteering to wrangle scallops is fun because it helps with conservation efforts, and for others because it is the only legal opportunity to fish for scallops in the bay, said Cameron Baxley, a scallop biologist at the FWC. Since the 90s, the population has been so low that there has not been a regular season for scallops.
Reese Thacker, 11, was excited to help out the conservation mission. She and her family jet skied out to a beach in St. Andrews Bay and snorkeled in hip deep water to look for the mollusk.
“I like snorkeling,” she said. With the rodeo, “you can do something good while you do something fun.”
Baxley hopes that over the next several years conservation efforts will help birth enough scallops to bring back regular scallop fishing in the bay. But there are many hurdles to creating a big, healthy community of mollusks. The decline of seagrass, general water quality, red tide and their one year lifespan can make hard-won progress disappear each year.
Joie Thacker hopes her 95 scallop contribution will help bring back the bounty found in the past.
“I want to be able to harvest scallops in my backyard,” she said. “You gotta start somewhere.”