New Bedford’s scallop industry received a double-dose of good news, as two scientific studies found strong scallop stocks and high numbers of young shellfish on Georges Bank.
"This is a really important resource, and it’s good news when two independent surveys agree," said Kevin Stokesbury, chairman of the Department of Fisheries Oceanography at the School of Marine Science and Technology at UMass Dartmouth, which undertook one of the studies. Using six commercial fishing vessels, the SMAST video survey ran from April to June and covered around 37,000 square miles of ocean bottom.
The other survey, released Monday, August 17, was conducted by scientists at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, aboard the 146-foot research vessel Hugh Sharp, using an 8-foot sea scallop dredge with a mesh liner to retain small seed scallops, in addition to deploying a high-resolution underwater camera between tows.