CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. — Scalloping season is officially here in Citrus County, but what can scallopers expect for a season taking place during a pandemic?

What You Need To Know


  • FWC unable to do routine preseason counts due to coronavirus pandemic

  • We Care Food Pantry holding "Great Scallop Treasure Hunt" to benefit nonprofit's efforts

  • See Citrus County Sheriff's Office safety tips for packing your boat for scalloping below

  • More Citrus County stories

Brittany Scharf with the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is optimistic about the season and people's continued enthusiasm for scalloping.

"People look forward to it each year and they’ve been going for years and years and years,” Scharf said.

Scharf went on to say 2019 wasn’t a good year for scallopers. For those expecting a better outcome this year, unfortunately researchers do not know how this season will look.

"Because of the national situation that we have going on right now, FWC did not do preseason counts like they typically do,” she explained.

The possibility of fewer scallops out there is not stopping people like Anita and Mike Shilko from partaking in all the scalloping fun this season, and they want the fun to benefit a great cause, too.

The Shilkos volunteer at the We Care Food Pantry, which is putting on its first "Great Scallop Treasure Hunt," for which all profits go to helping the food insecure in the county's communities.

What will participants be hunting for, aside from scallops?

“We are hiding a special design stainless steel scallop in the Gulf,” Mike explained. “It’s worth $2,500.” 

Before anyone launches their boat in the water to go scalloping, however, Citrus Country Sheriff Mike Prendergast stressed some safety measures. 

“Make sure you’ve got all the life jackets that you need for everybody’s that going to be on the boat,” he said. “Make sure you’ve got the fire extinguishers, you’ve got your updated registration, you’ve got your salt water fishing license for everybody’s that going to be out there fishing.”

He also said to make sure to have a diving flag on the boat, which Scharf added needs to be located at the highest part of the boat to let others know you’re under water. 

And finally ...

“Just make sure that you take scallops that are about an inch and a half or larger and leave the smaller ones," Scharf said. "Throw them back in the water alive — that way they have chance to reproduce and add back to next year's population so that we have a scalloping season next year.”

For more information on "The Great Scallop Treasure Hunt" and We Care Food Pantry, visit the event page on their website.