Hunting the Blue Eyed Scallop – Homosassa and Crystal River FL [August 26 and 28, 2017]

Our beautiful scallop catch, do you see the blue eyes?

During the summer, a few counties in Florida allow snorkelers to harvest scallops from the shallow grass beds in the Gulf of Mexico.  Snorkeling for scallops!  We just had to try it!

If you don’t know what a scallop looks like before it is served on your dinner plate, think of the Shell gas station sign.  That is the shape of a scallop shell.  A scallop has two shells, one side is dark colored and one side is light colored. It propels itself by clamping and releasing the two shells together.  When it is hiding in the grass, the scallop opens the shells and filters plankton from the water.  There are two “kinds” of scallops.  Sea scallops are the big ones that live in deep, deep water out in the ocean and bay scallops are the small ones.  We were going after bay scallops.

Scallops are hard to see

Scallops are really hard to see; they blend into their environment.  You snorkel along the surface of the water, spot one, and then dive down 5-7 feet and pick it up, if it doesn’t scoot away from you first.  We developed a division of responsibilities.  Dana’s face mask has a 20 year old glasses prescription in it, so she sees underwater better than Russ does, whose mask has no prescription.  So, Dana would spot the scallop and point it out to Russ.  This was done with hand signals, because if you glance away, you won’t find the scallop again.  Then Russ would dive down to pick up the scallop (Dana is strictly a surface snorkeler…).  Sometimes, there would be another scallop lying nearby to be picked up in the same dive and once Russ got three.  Back up on the surface, Russ would hand the scallop (sometimes flapping its shells in an effort to get away) to Dana to put in the drawstring bag.  Team work!

Got one!

Our first trip was out of Old Homosassa with Captain Skip.  Captain Skip doesn’t have a web page, and doesn’t advertise with signs at the wharf.  His is a word of mouth business.  We like to ask local people for their recommendations, and this recommendation really paid off.  We were able to harvest three gallons of scallops in the shell.  They were transferred into buckets of water, and then into the cooler on ice.  This gave us a chance to admire them up close, and to see their many bright blue eyes (or sensors). 

Professional shuckers

At the dock, professional shuckers removed the meat from the shells for us, though Russ retained some to do back at the motor home to cook on the grill.  We have a video of Russ shucking.  It won't load out here on the road...we'll try to get it up when we get back to civilization and a stable wifi network.

**Imagine a video here**

Two days later we went scalloping again out of the town of Crystal River (just North of Homosassa) with Sea Education Adventures, Captain Laura and Alex (who was our swimmer and helped us catch the elusive scallops).  The grass beds off of Crystal River are thicker and so the scallops were harder to find.  A heavy wind and rain storm came up, cutting our scalloping short.  We high-tailed it back to the dock, having the salt water rinsed off of us by the rain.  The shuckers had (sensibly) gone home, so Russ shucked our 2 gallons of scallops himself in the motor home.  Needless to say, Russ’ rate was a lot slower than the professional shuckers.

With Captain Laura and Alex on the Crystal River

Both the Homosassa River and the Crystal River are formed by beautiful fresh water springs similar to the ones that we’ve described in previous posts.  The springs are very near to the Gulf of Mexico and the rivers are not very long.  The water is fresh and clear (should we say crystal clear), with a short brackish area just before joining the Gulf.  This part of Florida is called the Nature Coast.  It is largely undeveloped.  There are no expanses of beaches; the coastline is mostly wetlands and mangrove stands.  A welcome change from the more touristy parts of the Sunshine State.

Shucking at home

Getting ready to cook on the grill

Deliciousness!

We had a great time snorkeling and catching scallops, and plan on a return trip. Oh, by the way, we had yummy scallop dinners both nights, and froze over half of our catch for deliciousness when we get home.

Oh happy day!