April 9, 2014 — It’s the last week of commercial scalloping season on Nantucket, and Max Perkins is shoveling snow out of his dad’s scallop boat at the Children’s Beach boat ramp.
The recent spring blizzard had kept the island’s fleet out of the water for 48 hours, but Max and his father Blair Perkins want to squeeze one last day out of the season.
Perkins boat is a 22-foot Mako that he calls Oldsquaw. We’re headed out past the Brant Point lighthouse to an area of the harbor known as the "Horse Shed." By the time we arrive, there are already six scallop boats with their dredges in the water.
“The Horse Shed," Blair Perkins said, "is just notorious for very deep grass on it and it takes a good northerly storm, north northwest, to blow the grass off and expose the nice scallops in here”
Despite losing 26 days of fishing to cold temperatures and winter storms, Nantucket fishermen landed 14,500 bushels of scallops during the five-month season, less than last year, but generally considered a successful harvest and an indicator of a stable population.
That's good news because for many on Nantucket, the bay scallop fishery provides a paycheck during the slow winter months when the tourists are gone, and the island economy slows to a crawl.
“It’s been a great year," Perkins said. "The weather was a little iffy for, you know, for stretches, but overall the price was up. Now it’s $15, but it was $12, $13, $14, through most of the season. And of course, that’s what it should be anyway, it should never go down below $10 at least. But there was good stock.”