Support local journalism. Unlock unlimited digital access to your best source for news and information on the Space Coast. Visit floridatoday.com/subscribe
Countless calico scallops washed ashore Friday, scattering a mystery over a mile-long stretch of Satellite Beach.
Local beachgoers say they’ve never seen anything like it, while state biologists — as they investigate the matter — speculate wind and waves brought them in.
Others aren’t so sure.
“Our Fish and Wildlife Health staff have samples and are currently investigating further,” Carly Jones, a spokeswoman with the state’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, said Friday. “It is most likely that a combination of wind and/or wave swells washed them ashore.”
Kevin Johnson, a professor of Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences at the Florida Institute of Technology, doubts that’s the case.
“Their typical habitat is 30-40 meters deep,” Johnson said Friday. “I don’t think we’ve had winds that could do that without some help. I believe something weakened or killed them ahead of washing ashore.”
Johnson said the scallops are “either alive and dying or freshly dead.”
The soft tissue between their shells was visible, he noted. “That is their internal viscera, including foot, gills, adductor muscle, etc.”
“So this does pose a bit of a mystery – a sudden mass death event,” Johnson added. “If we’d had an unusual storm (winds/rough waves), then I would speculate they were just dislodged from their sandy subtidal habitat. But we haven’t really had that type of a storm, and their habitat is usually 30 meters deep or more.”
Tree removal fight heads to court: Lawsuit seems inevitable between Brevard County and Malabar over Scrub Jay sanctuary
Active hurricane season ahead?: La Niña looks set to linger, threatening Florida with spring wildfires and summer hurricanes
Study: More Floridians believe in climate change: Young Republicans leading the way when it comes to Florida’s shifting views on climate change
While they have been commercially harvested in the past, calico scallops collapsed as a going commercial concern four decades ago.
“Like so many fish and shellfish which have been overharvested, it is hard to find very big ones any more,” Johnson said.
If the dead and dying scallops were along 10 or 20 meters of the beach, Johnson said he’d think it might be that someone caught them and poured them out nearby.
But the larger expanse along the beach suggests some sort of “natural” phenomenon.”
Calico scallops are found throughout Florida’s coast.
“If their plight is natural, something has weakened their ability to stay put on their home on the sandy seafloor,” Johnson added.
Possibilities of why they washed up include disease (viral, bacterial, fungal); temperature extremes; rapid changes in salt content in the ocean; and parasites, he added.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s website, “Infection by a parasite of the genus Marteilia may have been responsible for a calico scallop population crash recorded off Cape Canaveral along Florida’s east coast in 1991. The parasite appears to infest the calico scallop’s digestive gland to such an extent that they starve to death.”
Jim Waymer is an environment reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Waymer at 321-261-5903 or jwaymer@floridatoday.com. Or find him on Twitter: @JWayEnviro or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/jim.waymer
Support local journalism and local journalists like me. Visit floridatoday.com/subscribe
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Scallops wash up on Florida’s Satellite Beach puzzling FWC, biologists
Source link
hartford car insurance shop car insurance best car insurance quotes best online car insurance get auto insurance quotes auto insurance quotes most affordable car insurance car insurance providers car insurance best deals best insurance quotes get car insurance online best comprehensive car insurance best cheap auto insurance auto policy switching car insurance car insurance quotes auto insurance best affordable car insurance online auto insurance quotes az auto insurance commercial auto insurance instant car insurance buy car insurance online best auto insurance companies best car insurance policy best auto insurance vehicle insurance quotes aaa insurance quote auto and home insurance quotes car insurance search best and cheapest car insurance best price car insurance best vehicle insurance aaa car insurance quote find cheap car insurance new car insurance quote auto insurance companies get car insurance quotes best cheap car insurance car insurance policy online new car insurance policy get car insurance car insurance company best cheap insurance car insurance online quote car insurance finder comprehensive insurance quote car insurance quotes near me get insurance