April 6, 2024 — After a banner year for Vineyard commercial scallopers in the 2022-23 season, this winter’s bay scallop season was something of a cool-down for the notoriously fickle fishery.
Island fishermen harvested around 2,500 fewer bushels this year, though local scallopers and fishmongers say it wasn’t all bad news for the fishery, as a lower harvest on- and off-Island prevented the precipitous drop in scallop prices that occurred last year.
“It was good this year,” said Matteus Scheffer, who drags from the Anita Penny out of Cape Pogue. “This year, we were all getting our [daily bushel] limits pretty well, for the most part.”
Edgartown shellfish constable Rob Morrison described the harvest as “not bad by modern standards.”
“Scallops are one of those things where their abundance does seem to be cyclical,” he added.