Scalloping to resume in Pasco County after toxins temporarily suspend season

FOX 13's Kylie Jones reports.

HOLIDAY, Fla. - After being put on pause for a month, recreational scalloping will resume on Wednesday in Pasco County.

The Pasco zone will reopen for bay scallop harvesting from August 28 through September 24, 2024. This area includes all state waters south of the Hernando-Pasco County line and north of the Anclote Key Lighthouse in northern Pinellas County, encompassing the Anclote River.

On July 24, FWC officials said they detected saxitoxin and pyrodinium bahamense exceeding shellfish sanitation levels established by the National Shellfish Sanitation Program. Both regularly bloom in Florida coastal waters during the summer and the FWC regularly takes water samples looking for the toxins.

The toxins can build up in shellfish and can make humans sick if they eat contaminated scallops, FWC says.

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It can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning and symptoms such as vomiting, loss of body movement, incoherent speech, and dizziness. Symptoms can start as soon as 15 minutes after ingestion but can also happen up to 10 hours after ingestion. In extreme cases, the FWC says people can be sick from 12 hours to 45 days.

"We appreciate the community’s patience with the closure while we carefully monitored toxin levels in the Pasco Zone. Public safety is our top priority, and we wanted to ensure that levels dropped below the safety threshold before we considered reopening the season. We are excited to give back all the season days ahead of Labor Day weekend and encourage you and your family to enjoy Florida’s beautiful outdoors," said Executive Director Roger Young.

"The health and safety of my clients is number one," said Captain Travis Pack, the owner of Captain Pack Sparrow Adventures. "So, I'm glad they did shut down, and they're doing testing on it. But, it is unfortunate just because it was such a shock to us when it happened."

Pack said the scalloping season was plentiful when it first opened. He said nobody was expecting the closure.

"With the short two and a half months, we run a lot of trips, two times a day per captain," said Captain Gary Bartell Jr., the owner of Ozello Keys Marina. "We run just over 200 trips a season."

Captains in and around Pasco County said scalloping drives their business in the summer. Pack said the closure forced him to cancel scalloping charters and offer other types of charters.

"When that happens, you got a whole different game plan, you know," Pack said. "Got to change it."

Captains in Citrus County felt the ripple effects of the closure in Pasco County.

"When Pasco County had closed, it threw a big jab at us here, because what we saw, especially on the weekends, we saw just this flood of boats coming into the scallop grounds here in Citrus, between Homosassa and Ozello," Bartell Jr. said.

"We had plenty of scallops to make everyone happy," Bartell Jr. said. "So, when Pasco County closed, then you just pretty much took away half the pie, and it put a big damper on our scallop population here, for sure."

The FWC says it will continue monitoring scallop and water samples. The agency recommends that people only eat the scallop muscle and not the roe or whole scallop once the Pasco scallop season resumes.

Captains are hopeful that the last month of the scalloping season will help them bounce back from lost business during the closure.

"So, I'm hoping that the charters I had to cancel, they'll reconsider booking me again, and we can find an opening date," Pack said.

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