July 17, 2018 — A ten year restoration program that aims to protect scallops and increase their population has kicked off in Panama City.
Biologists with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Research Institute gathered Sunday to start building cages for the project, that will soon be filled with scallops.
According to Emily Hardin with the FWC, groups of volunteers will be collecting the scallops and putting them in the cages to keep them safe from predators and to give them a better chance of reproducing.
“We don’t want the scallops to be eaten by any predators so we’re putting them inside the cage to help with that, but also, scallops will broadcast spawn. They’re going to release all of their egg and sperm into the water column and so if they’re close together, there’s a higher chance that everything’s going to come together just like it should and we’ll have a lot of baby scallops growing up in the bay,” Hardin said.
Hardin says the scallop populations have been declining for years because of over-harvesting, weather conditions and red tide.