Great Tampa Bay Scallop Search 2010

This short video will take you on a fun excursion as we search for scallops around Fort De Soto Park in South Pinellas County.  Every year Tampa Bay Watch organizes this event and the community loves to participate! The number of scallops found helps determine the health of Tampa Bay and its eco-system. This year I joined executive director Peter Clark (driving the boat) and the nearly 150 volunteer boaters and snorkelers who spent the morning in the shallow seagrass beds  in search of the elusive scallop. The final tally this year was extremely low... only 32 scallops were found compared to 674 last year. Speculation pointed not so much to the quality of water, but rather to the extremely cold winter and recent hard rains.