What started as a Boys and Girls Club cleanup near Emerson Point in Sarasota Bay, turned into a significant finding for area researchers and scientists. While cleaning up the shoreline around the DeSoto Memorial at the mouth of the Manatee River, Boys and Girls Club members discovered scallops while snorkeling.

"It was the largest population of scallops found in this region for the last 25 years," said Gary Raulerson, the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program's senior scientist. "We were working with some kids, and within an hour they found 64 of them in a 200-square-meter area."

Over the last 50 years, Sarasota Bay has gone from consisting of plentiful seagrass pastures and scallop bars to an area in need of restoration. Development around the Bay has led to significant nutrient and grime run-off into the estuary. The water quality got so bad scallops disappeared, along with much of the seagrass.

With the help from organizations like the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program, Sarasota Bay may be turning the corner. The program emphasizes the replanting of seagrasses into this delicate, estuarine environment to improve water quality. But they also are trying to find ways to prevent persistent, toxic runoff--like the heavy concentration of nutrients that spill into Roberts Bay and Little Sarasota Bay from Phillippi Creek.

Finding scallops means water quality is improving. For fishermen, better water quality means better fishing in the future.

"The water quality in the north end of our bay system is better," Raulerson said. "Based on what we've just seen along the Manatee River, we'll have to put our faces in the water here [in the Sarasota Bay area.] There are still a lot of issues to deal with, but something's being done right."