April 22, 2015 — The 2014-2015 scallop season that ended earlier this month was most likely the best in more than a decade, but fishermen and regulators are worried about the future of the scallop fishery.
Because each scallop season includes parts of two calendar years — running from December through the end of March or sometime in April — the Department of Marine Resources won’t publish any data for 2015 landings until next February, but according to DMR the scallop landings in December of 2014 were the highest for the month since mandatory landings reporting began in 2008. Total 2014 landings (including those from January through March as well as December) were the highest since 2000, and the landed value was the highest since 1996, in part because of a record high average price of $12.78 per pound.
In December, and through the season in 2015, fishermen earned as much as $14 per pound for scallops.
According to the minutes of a meeting of the DMR Scallop Advisory Council last Thursday, it was clear that the good news might well mask some potentially bad news.
Last year, there were 438 participants holding Maine scallop licenses active in the fishery, up from 168 in 2009. About 400 of the active license holders were fishing from draggers last year, compared with about 140 in 2009. (Some 22 scallopers last year were divers.)
The increase in the number of boats fishing obviously contributes to the higher landings, according to Trisha Cheney, DMR’s scallop resource manager, but it also reflects the draw of a greater abundance of scallops on the bottom, higher prices and the fact that, for the past two winters, the shrimp fishery has been closed.
Read the full story at the Ellsworth American