November 4, 2024 — Fifty-year fishing veteran Doug Smith, better known as Captain Smitty on the waterfront, is worried about the state of commercial scalloping on Nantucket.
Catching them isn’t the problem, he said.
The fishery is a far cry from what it was in the 1980s, but he had no issues collecting his five-bushel limit on the opening day of commercial scalloping season Friday. He was offloading his haul at Straight Wharf by noontime.
“I’m scared, and I’m looking for new resources. Something new and exciting, rather than the three dominant buyers,” Smith said Friday.
Island fish markets would not confirm what they were paying fishermen for their scallops Friday, but several scallopers and dealers said that Sayle’s Seafood, Glidden’s Island Seafood and Nantucket Seafoods were offering between $12-14 a pound. Last year most buyers were paying $15 on opening day.