Florida Scallop Season: Is It Open Where You Are Going?

Quick answer: Florida’s bay scallop season runs in summer, and only on the Gulf coast from Mexico Beach to Pasco County. Each of the 5 zones has its own dates: July 1 to September 24 around Crystal River and Carrabelle, June 15 to Labor Day around Steinhatchee. Pick your town and date to see whether it is open.

How to use it

Pick the town you are going to, or leave “Every zone”, and the day you want to go (today is filled in). The answer says whether bay scallop season is open there that day and, if it is, its last day; if it is not, the day it opens next and how many days away that is. Below it, every zone’s state on that day, then the rules for that zone: the daily limit, the gear, the license and the divers-down flag, in the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s own words, with links to its pages.

Where the dates come from

The seasons are set by rule 68B-18.005 of the Florida Administrative Code, and FWC’s bay scallop page repeats them by zone. The rule’s default is “July 1 and continues through September 24 each year”; three zones have their own: the Gulf County Zone (St. Joseph Bay) August 16 to September 24, the Fenholloway – Suwannee River Zone (Keaton Beach and Steinhatchee) June 15 to Labor Day, and the Pasco Zone July 10 to August 18. Rule 68B-18.008 adds that “all Florida Waters except those included in subsection (1) are closed to the harvest of bay scallops”: you may take scallops only between the Mexico Beach Canal in Bay County and the Anclote Key Lighthouse, just south of the Pasco–Pinellas line.

FWC can change a season by executive order, and it did twice in 2026. Executive Order 26-28 closed the Gulf County Zone’s whole 2026 season, after “a prolonged red tide event that occurred in coastal waters of Gulf County from October through December 2025 during the bay scallop spawning season”; FWC’s page adds that a summer survey “showed very low bay scallop abundance” in St. Joseph Bay. Executive Order 26-27 closed the Pasco Zone from August 6, 2026, because of toxin-producing algae. The checker counts both orders; for 2027 it uses the rule’s dates, because no order for 2027 has been issued. Check FWC’s page in June before you go.

Every zone, its towns and its season

Labor Day is shown for 2027. The towns are the ones FWC names for each zone (Carrabelle, Lanark, St. Marks, Keaton Beach, Steinhatchee, Cedar Key, Crystal River, Homosassa), plus Port St. Joe on St. Joseph Bay, Horseshoe Beach, Hernando Beach and the three Pasco towns, each placed inside its zone by the rule’s own boundary lines.

The limits, the gear and the license

The daily bag limit is “2 gallons of whole bay scallops in shell or 1 pint of bay scallop meat” a person, and a boat may hold at most 10 gallons in the shell or half a gallon of meat, however many people are aboard. From June 15 to June 30 the Fenholloway – Suwannee River Zone allows half that: 1 gallon in the shell or one cup shucked a person, 5 gallons or two pints a boat. There is no minimum size. You may take scallops only “by hand, or by using a landing or dip net”, and you may not have one aboard with “a trawl, drag, dredge, or net (other than a landing or dip net)”.

You need a Florida saltwater fishing license: $17 for 3 days, $30 for 7 days or $47 a year for visitors, $17 a year for residents. Children under 16 need none, nor do Florida residents 65 or older, nor anyone on a guide or charter boat that holds a charter license. A Florida resident wading from shore (feet on the bottom, no snorkel, no boat) may use the free shoreline license instead.

Most scallopers snorkel, and Florida law calls anyone in the water “with a face mask and snorkel” a diver. Divers “must prominently display a divers-down warning device”: a flag at least 20 by 24 inches on a boat, or 12 by 12 inches on a float in the water. Stay within 300 feet of it in open water and 100 feet in a river, inlet or channel; boats within those distances must go no faster than they need to keep steering; and the flag comes down “once all divers are aboard or ashore”.

Worked examples

Crystal River on July 4, 2027. Open: the Levy–Citrus–Hernando zone runs July 1 to September 24, so the last day is 82 days later.

Steinhatchee on June 20, 2027. Open, with the lower June limit: 1 gallon of whole scallops a person, 5 gallons a boat. The season there ends on Labor Day, September 6, 2027.

Port St. Joe on September 1, 2026. Closed: FWC closed the Gulf County Zone’s whole 2026 season. The next season opens August 16, 2027, in 349 days.

Hudson on August 10, 2026. Closed: FWC closed the Pasco Zone on August 6, 12 days before the rule’s August 18. It opens next on July 10, 2027.

Every zone on September 1, 2027. Open in 4 of the 5 zones; the Pasco Zone closed on August 18.

Common mistakes

• Going to Port St. Joe in July. The Gulf County Zone opens on August 16, 46 days after Crystal River and Cedar Key.
• Planning a Labor Day weekend at Steinhatchee and a week after. Its season ends on Labor Day, not on September 24.
• Scalloping in Tampa Bay, off Destin or in the Keys. Every Florida water outside the five zones is closed to bay scallops all year.
• Counting a full bucket in late June around Steinhatchee. From June 15 to June 30 the limit there is half the usual one.
• Snorkeling without a divers-down flag, or leaving it up on the ride home.
• Leaving the shells in the Homosassa or Crystal River. FWC asks you not to: “Piles of discarded scallop shells can create hazards for swimmers and damage seagrass habitat.”

Plan the rest of the trip

Read our guides to St. George Island against Cape San Blas (scalloping in St. Joseph Bay), whether Cedar Key is worth visiting, Crystal River against Homosassa Springs, kayaking the Homosassa and what you may collect on a Florida beach. In the same towns in winter, see where to see manatees, and find a spring to swim in with the Florida Springs Finder.