November 11, 2019 — Scallop season started this week, but fisheries on eastern Long Island say scallops in the Peconic Bay may have died off over the summer.
Roger Tollefsen, former executive director of the New York Seafood Council, an industry group in the Hampton Bays, says scallops depend on nutrients in the water to survive.
Harmful algal blooms can diminish the population, but Tollefsen says that some algae can help create a healthier ecosystem.
“We should be nurturing the good algae in our bays as opposed to simply trying to eliminate the ones which we call harmful.”