Sarasota Bay Watch hosts 'clamtastic' evening

Clams are not only sustainable, they also clean Sarasota Bay and eat red tide.

They do a lot more, Sarasota Bay Watch President Larry Stults said, but those three were the main points he was educating guests of “Scallopalooza: It’s Clamtastic!” Sept. 22 about.

This summer, the Bay Watch worked to release 250,000 clams into Sarasota, and now they are embarking on a bigger mission, which was highlighted at the fundraiser Saturday night.

The Sarasota Bay Watch hopes to raise $100,000 so they can release 1 million more clams into the bay as phase two of their clam restoration project.

As the event started, the Bay Watch had raised one-third of that.

This year’s event comes after the Bay Watch had to cancel its annual scallop search because of red tide. Stults said the red tide bloom has made people more aware of the local marine environments.

“If we can increase community support of a natural, biology-based way to clean the Bay, I think people are more interested than ever,” Stults said.

At the event, guests mingled in the lobby of the Sarasota Yacht Club during cocktail hour. After perusing the auction items, attendees enjoyed dinner and learned more about the mission of the Sarasota Bay Watch.