During November, young scallops, which have drifted in the sea and along ocean currents since their parents’ late-summer spawning, are settling down on patches of sand and gravel seafloor along the Maine coast. No one knows where they have come from, or where exactly they will go, but some will land in a sheltered area and grow to market size. Maine’s scallop harvesters, who have been fishing discrete scallop beds in coastal waters for decades, already know that some places are better for Placopecten magellanicus than others.
Once one of the state’s most valuable fisheries, scallop landings declined to an all-time low six years ago, and now provide only part-time jobs for a few fishermen in most coastal communities. However, the fishery remains important in some areas, particularly in the Cobscook Bay region, where nearly 70 percent of Maine’s harvest is landed.
In response to declining numbers of scallops, the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR), which regulates the fishery in state waters within three miles of shore, closed a number of scallop fishing grounds in 2009. The closures were inspired by the success of rotational closures established in offshore scallop fishing grounds, including on Georges Bank, since the 1990s. The offshore scallop fishery is one of the most valuable in the United States and the rebuilding scallop population is one of the Northwest Atlantic’s few fishery success stories.
Read the complete article from Working Waterfront.