December 1, 2015 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — The Maine scallop fishery opened Tuesday morning, with predictions that the boat price will be high, the season short and the pressure to let more people into the fishery intense.
Last week, Trisha Cheney, the Department of Marine Resources’ scallop resource coordinator, hosted an outreach meeting in Ellsworth to give industry members a heads-up about what to expect for the coming season and to hear their concerns about the fishery and the way it is managed by DMR.
The department is in the midst of developing a formal fishery management plan for scallops, but no draft will be available for industry review any time soon. In the near term, and of more immediate interest, Cheney said Downeast harvesters are likely facing “a lean season,” especially in Zone 2, which covers the waters from roughly the middle of Penobscot Bay eastward to Lubec.
This season, harvesters will have access to seven areas in Zone 2 that have closed to scalloping under the state’s 10-year rotational management program. Encompassing locations in and around Machias Bay, Wohoa Bay and Western bays, Gouldsboro and Dyer bays, upper Blue Hill Bay and the Union River, eastern Eggemoggin Reach and Southeast Harbor on Deer Isle, lower Jericho Bay and, finally, lower Penobscot Bay and the outer islands seaward of North Haven, the newly opened areas were closed for just one season. As a result, these areas have had less time during which the scallop resource would be undisturbed and allowed to rebuild.In 2014, scallop landings totaled 584,172 meat pounds (without the shell) compared to just 33,141 pounds in 2005. Value jumped from a low of $272,703 in 2005 to $7,464,690 in 2014. Because each scallop season extends over parts of two calendar years, the 2014 numbers reflect landings for the period January through April and the month of December. In recent years, DMR has frequently closed the fishery by the end of March.