Jumbo Scallop - Have you had experience with one this big?

I was freedive hunting for scallops in central america a few weeks ago....

I was hunting by myself in about 30 foot of water, vis was about 30 feet. I wasnt using a bag just grabbing as many scallops as i could find, when my hands got full i would pile them up underwater, then swim them in. Most scallops were easy picking, I would see them open and feeding, swim down and just twist them off the rock. Then, a normal looking scallop slightly under a ledge at about 35 foot deep, beat me in a tug-O-war. I swam to the surface as I had already been down over a minute and a half. Blowing off the victorious scallop that i couldnt get from under the ledge, I forgot about that scallop seeing as they were really everywhere. After I breathed up i dove back down to resume my hunting when i saw a dust cloud where i had been fighting the scallop, so i swam back over to give it round two.... This time i was fresh and i pulled and twisted, and finally after 30 seconds of hard work it broke free. To my shock it was unlike any scallop i had ever seen, it was a monster scallop. It weighed over 3 lbs and was 3-4 inches thick.

When my panga driver came to pick me up i showed him the scallop, and he thought i was BS'ing him. No one believed that a scallop could look like this. After all i collected maybe 10 scallops that day and all of them together were smaller than this one. Once in town the fisherman made me take the scallop around the town and show the dive shops and fishing huts. This time no one believed it was a scallop until i cut it open and showed them the muscle. Which incidentally was the tenderest and sweetest scallop i have ever eaten.

Any of you ever had experience with scallops that are 18 inches long and over 3 lbs. Heres some photos.


The moster scallop


The Meat of the scallop still attached to the broken piece of the shell

Breakfast of Champions - Scallop sashimi and soy sause

Bill McIntyre said:

I Googled pen shell and came up with this, but it describes it as a Mediterranean species.

the pen shell (pinna nobilis)

Click to expand...

Bill,

Thanks after more inspection it is indeed a pen shell, and also a scallop. Pen Shells are in the family of scallops. Although it still seems crazy big even for pen shells, which i have seen online accounts average 6 inches

Pen shells average 6” in length
and live in soft, sandy mud with
their narrow tips downward. A
small foot spins clumps of tough
threads that keep it attached to
buried stones and broken shells.
Two varieties of pen shells are
found in this area: saw-toothed
(Atrina serrata) and rigid (A. rigida).
the rigid is distinguished by a horny
texture with 15 rows of erect, prickly
spines; the saw-toothed has small
scales and over 30 ribs.

Click to expand...

Image from www.okeefes.org/Mollusks/Bivalves.htm

I knew it was a scallop because the inner parts were exactly the same as the smaller scallops. Yet I must say this was the best tasting scallop i have ever eaten raw.