giant bay scallop

Posted June 19th, 2006 by Jay Leverone
OK everyone. Get out your calipers. Recently, a complete (both valves) bay scallop specimen came into my possession. It was apparently (collection info and article was lost) found in Pine Island Sound, on the Gulf coast of Florida. It was found around fifty years ago from the shallow grassbeds. It measures 97.1 mm shell height!!! It's in beautiful shape (don't know how many years it lived). Bay scallops just don't grow that big "in these here parts", maybe 70 mm tops. How big do they grow "down east"? Hope to hear from someone out there. Jay Leverone
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Large Bay Scallop

On June 21st, 2006 pboyce said:
I'll have to check the records -- if we have them-- but, at the annula Scallopers Ball here on Nantucket we have a Largest Scallop contest. If memory serves, the largets ever might have topped 100mm. We regularly get the commercial scallopers bringing in specimens up in the 90s. We don't get these huge scallops from the research sites within Nantucket Harbor which we have sampled so far, but there clearly are special places around Nantucket where such growth is possible. From the look of the large ones, they are probably early fall spawn scallops which have lived through two winters and are starting their third year. --Peter Boyce--

large bay scallop

On August 16th, 2006 Jay Leverone said:
Peter, Thanks for the reply. I figured that there would be large bay scallops from the colder New England waters (something I think I learned as an undergraduate). I can assure you that we don't find any of that size today in Florida. So I guess mine will go into the "close but no cigar" category. Perhaps I'll bring him to San Antonio. Thanks again, Jay