Bay Scallop Count: Choctawhatchee Bay

2022 to Present

Partners: Florida Sea Grant / UF-IFAS Extension, Luther’s Pontoon, Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance, Destin-Fort Walton Beach Natural Resources Team

Destin-Fort Walton Beach Natural Resources supports the Great Bay Scallop Search, an annual citizen-science survey of Choctawhatchee Bay conducted in partnership with Florida Sea Grant. Volunteer citizen science teams snorkel assigned 50-meter transects across a grid of bay locations to search for bay scallops, recording presence, absence, and habitat conditions such as seagrass type and salinity. Okaloosa County held its first such survey in 2022, the first since 2015, reflecting long-term concern over scallop and seagrass decline in the bay.

Results to date have shown very limited scallop presence in Choctawhatchee Bay, consistent with similar low counts reported in neighboring Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, where Sea Grant crews found only a handful of scallops over a seven-year span. Researchers attribute much of the region-wide decline to a combination of historical overharvesting and poor water quality resulting in the loss of seagrass beds, which bay scallops depend on for habitat. Choctawhatchee Bay is dominated by shoal seagrass, a species that’s more resilient than the favorable turtle and manatee grass beds found elsewhere in Florida. The survey data helps local and state partners track long-term trends and prioritize seagrass and water-quality restoration work in the bay, including the county’s broader efforts on Choctawhatchee Bay.