Annual landings of the calico scallop Argopecten gibbus fishery in the southeastern United States increased from less than 3,000 kg in 1959 to 19.5 million kg of adductor muscle meat in 1984. The fishery began to collapse in early 1986 in Florida and fell below 1 million kg/year in the mid-1990s. From 2002 through 2011, the only reported landings were 550 kg in 2009, but annual landings of less than 200,000 kg beginning in 2012 indicate the resource rebounded enough in that year to create renewed interest in the fishery. When the fishery was developing, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) sponsored 59 cruises (1956 through the mid-1970s) to map the distribution of the stock and found the calico scallop stocks on Florida's east coast principally occurred around the 40-m depth contour near the shelf break. By the early 1980s, surveys were no longer routinely conducted. Two surveys in the mid-1990s were dedicated to investigating the collapse of the stock. The present study consisted of eight cruises from 2004 to 2006: four each to the beds off Cape Canaveral on the eastern coast and the poorly documented beds off southwestern Florida. Cruises studying baitfish and cruises in the Gulf of Mexico by the Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (SEAMAP) yielded data that provided additional calico scallop abundance estimates. Abundant, albeit small, scallops were found on both coasts during three of the four cruises to each coast though none were detected in fall 2004 on either coast. Our results concur with those historic NMFS surveys conducted prior to the period of heaviest exploitation of the resource (1974–1999); the center of distribution for calico scallops on the Cape Canaveral beds still occurs near the 40-m depth contour. The essential habitat for calico scallops, shell base, which was suspected to have declined during the most active fishery periods, was found to have persisted consistently at that depth. There were few scallops with a shell height greater than 40 mm, the minimal size considered acceptable for commercial exploitation.