NEWPORT, R.I. — November 20, 2014 — The New England Fisheries Management Council voted this morning to expand the closure of two areas in the Northeast Atlantic where there has emerged an abundance of juvenile scallops.
The closure will cost millions of dollars in the short term, but are predicted to have a payoff in years beyond 2017 when the areas can reopen and the grown scallops harvested.
The council did not follow a staff recommendation that Closed Area 2 should be expanded to the Hague line separating the U.S. and Canada. Scallops surveys in Closed Area 2 indicate a very large population of young scallops, spilling outside existing boundaries.
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