More scallops

Yesterday, Michelle and I and 6 other grad students from UF went to the Steinhatchee area to scallop.



We put our boats in 3/4 of a mile from the Gulf of Mexico in the tidal creek - Rocky Creek - you see pictured above and below.



We had 2 canoes and 2 kayaks and we were fortunate to have relatively calm weather all day.





There was a massive front that pushed through right before we launched the boats. For the rest of the day we didn't have but a few drops of rain. The temps were probably in the low to mid 80's all day. Even though the water temps were about the same, the wind and general lack of sunshine made it feel kind of cool out of the water.





Outside of the airboats that occasionally passed by, this tidal creek and estuary was really peaceful. A great place to just paddle around.



We had some canoe tippage, which wasn't a big deal because it's never more than 4-5 feet deep and the water was really clear.



In fact, you could paddle 4-5 miles out into the Gulf and still wade around.



It's pretty easy once you get on top of them. You simply snorkel around, try not to get distracted by the pinfish, sponges, and starfish, and grab them off the seafloor or out of the seagrass. I'm wearing the shirt to prevent sunburn. Last year I got torched doing this. Sunscreen doesn't do the trick - we still had some in our group that were burned yesterday even though it was cloudy most of the day.



We reached our limit, 16 gallons for 8 people, after 3-4 hours of scalloping.



Back at the landing. I think that Michelle enjoyed it - I am proud that she did it in spite of her fear of large bodies of water, slimy sea-vegetation, and sharks and jellyfish and that sort of thing. Well, she did it until something nibbled her knee. She got in the canoe pretty quick, which isn't easy. Later, we found out that one of my labmates did spot a 4-5 foot shark out there.

Loading up and bringing in the day's catch.



Shucking scallops back in Gainesville.



You can see the little white muscle in each scallop. These are bay scallops, which are sweeter but not quite as big as sea scallops. If you order scallops in a restaurant, they are either sea scallops or stingray cubes made to look like scallops. As far as I know, you cannot harvest bay scallops for commercial purposes, which makes this a unique experience - being able to harvest and eat your own, that is - one that we feel very blessed to have had.



Bay scallops in garlic-butter sauce with green onions and parmesan over pasta.