March 19, 2018 — You heard it right. Despite massive scallop harvests coming in the US and Japan in 2018, it’s very possible that Americans won’t see any kind of a bump in the availability of what many consider their favorite mollusk, suggests Peter Handy, the president and CEO of Bristol Seafoods.
Handy, a well-known seafood market analyst, laid out his bold theory in a presentation just before Seafood Expo North America 2018, in Boston, and in a subsequent interview with Undercurrent News. His 25-year-old Portland, Maine-based company handles 6 million lbs of seafood annually, including a large number of Atlantic deep-sea scallops (Placopecten magellanicus).
“Just like you hear [the automobile manufacturer] Ford talk about how the price of metal is going to affect their production costs, seafood is the same way for us,” he said.
Handy doesn’t doubt there will be more scallops worldwide in 2018.
Based on strong surveys and thanks to the decision by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to open up previously closed areas and strong surveys off the coast of New England, US scallop harvesters are looking forward to their largest harvest in 14 years – 27,216 metric tons – when their season starts April 1.
The harvest represents the continuation of a trend that Handy credits US conservation policy for. Scallop landings are up 300% since 1995, he noted.
Simultaneously, Japan is predicted to see a major boost in production of Pacific sea scallops (Patinopecten yessoensis) as beds off the coast of Hokkaido in the Sea of Okhotsk recover from weather disasters. As Undercurrent reported earlier, the area is looking at increasing its harvest from the 205,000t of scallops landed in 2017 to 260,000t in 2018.
Read the full story at Undercurrent News