September 24, 2024 — Among the highlights of our 2024 Integrated Sea Scallop and HabCam Research Survey are strong numbers of two-year-old scallops observed in both dredge samples and HabCam images. These were found in the southern part of the Great South Channel, the eastern portion of the Nantucket Lightship Area, the northern portion of Closed Area I, and in the Elephant Trunk and Hudson Canyon South areas in the Mid-Atlantic. Sea scallops typically reach harvestable size at about age 4 and older.
This is also the first survey that included three cruises, exclusively used a commercial vessel for dredging, and deployed a long-range autonomous underwater vehicle (LRAUV).
This year, we deployed the HabCam V4 and a new LRAUV, nicknamed “Stella,” from the R/V Hugh R. Sharp, owned and operated by the University of Delaware. Then, we completed a dredge survey aboard a chartered commercial scalloper, F/V Selje. Finally, we deployed both the HabCam V4 and Stella from the NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow.
The HabCam IV and Stella vehicles continuously photograph the ocean bottom while they collect other data about conditions in the waters in which they operate. The dredge is a standardized 8-foot-wide New Bedford sea scallop dredge that collects sea scallops and associated bycatch for biological analyses along with some environmental variables.
The Atlantic sea scallop population is surveyed every summer by NOAA Fisheries and partnering research groups, supported through the Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside program. This year those partners are:
- Coonamessett Farm Foundation
- Maine Department of Marine Resources
- University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth School of Marine Science and Technology
- Virginia Institute of Marine Science