January 9, 2019 — Maine’s scallop season got off to a good start last month, with supplies plentiful and a strong price, but that may be about to change.
Early on, according to Melissa Smith, the scallop resource manager at the Department of Marine Resources, along most of the coast between Penobscot Bay and Cobscook Bay landings varied were “variable depending on the location.”
Scallop meat sizes also ranged from quite large to relatively small depending on where they were brought up, “as is the norm for any fishing year.”
Harvesters were generally able to get their daily limits — three 5-gallon buckets or about 135 pounds of shucked scallop meats — by the early afternoon or even earlier.