Cedar Key may not be one of Florida’s more famous Keys; the Beach Boys or Jimmy Buffet ever sang its praise. Cedar Key, however, is famous among Gulf seafood lovers for its hard shell clams harvested in record numbers and shipped to restaurants around the country.
Located almost center point between Tampa and Pensacola, the tiny peninsula sits surrounded by the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico fed by the Suwannee River.
“Cedar Key sticks out in the Gulf of Mexico giving it a nice tidal range of two high tides and two low tides a day,” said Leslie Sturmer, a Molluscan shellfish specialist for Florida Sea Grant. “This tidal range is very conducive to growing shellfish, especially clams. The growing beds are out in the shallow waters of the Gulf, not within a lagoon, harbor or sound.”
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