March 16, 2021 — Sea scallop surveys, bycatch reduction and sea turtle interactions are on a list for the 2021-22 Northeast research set-aside program for scallop science.
Set up by the New England Fishery Management Council in 1999, the cooperative science effort between researchers and fishermen was one outcome of the scallop fishery crisis when abundance declined in the mid-1990s. Two decades later, scallops are the richest East Coast fishery, with a system of rotating area management and close collaboration between NMFS, academic researchers and the industry.
The set-aside program is a wish list of research needs from the council and carves out a small part of the fishery’s landings – valued around $570 million in 2019 – allocating it to boats carrying out the projects. For the 2021-2022 program that will be about $12.5 million in scallops brought to the docks, with $3 million from those paying for the science work and $9.5 million for the fishermen, according to a summary from NMFS.
“The RSA program improves our scientific understanding of sea scallops and monkfish, which directly contributes to their sustainable management,” Jon Hare, director of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, said in a statement outlining the plan.