September 11, 2020 — Maine’s scallop fishers who plan to participate in the coming fishing year will be allowed the same harvesting levels as last season.
The Maine Department of Marine Resources said scallopers who work most of the coast will be limited to 15 gallons per day. Fishers in the Cobscook Bay area will be limited to 10 gallons per day. Those are the same limitations as the 2019-20 scallop season.
February 19, 2020 — Maine fishing regulators are shutting down some of the most important scallop fishing areas in the state for the season.
Cobscook, Whiting and Dennys bays are all shut down, the Maine Department of Marine Resources said.
Cobscook Bay is home to the most fertile scallop fishing grounds in Maine, which is home to a winter scallop harvesting industry.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Portland Press Herald
January 29, 2019 — Maine fishing regulators are shutting down some of the most fertile scallop fishing grounds in the state to help keep the shellfish’s population healthy.
The Maine Department of Marine Resources says it will implement a closure of Cobscook Bay, including the Whiting and Dennys Bay areas. Cobscook Bay is the most productive scallop fishing area in Maine.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Portland Press Herald
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.
December 4, 2018 — Maine’s scallop draggers are getting started for the winter on the state’s eastern coast, where they hope to continue the industry’s steady growth.
The coastal state’s meaty scallops have enjoyed resurgence in recent years, as the 2017 harvest total was highest in two decades. Operators of scallop dragger boats can get started on the eastern coast Monday.
Draggers who harvest along the western coast can start Dec. 10. A more limited season in the Cobscook Bay area also gets started Monday. Cobscook Bay is regarded as the most fertile scalloping ground in the state and fishing there is subject to tight controls.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Bangor Daily News
September 17, 2018 — Maine’s scallop fishermen are looking at another year of conservative management, and members of the industry say that could be the best way to make sure the fishery continues rebuilding.
Maine is known for producing scallops that are somewhat bigger than other East Coast states, and some are plucked from the icy waters by hand during winter. Others are harvested by boats with fishing gear. The Maine Department of Marine Resources has said strict management of the harvest has allowed the scallops to rebuild from collapse in the mid-2000s.
The state is looking to continue that trend this year with a season that keeps fishermen restricted to tight limits on the number of pounds they can harvest. Fishermen are also limited in the number of days they can fish, and the state is looking to trim a few days.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at The News Tribune
December 1, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — Maine fishermen are heading out on the water to participate in the state’s rebuilt scallop fishery, which targets one of the most lucrative seafood species in the country.
Scallop fishing begins Friday in Maine and lasts until mid-April. The specifications for the season are very similar to the previous year.
Fishermen in most of the state can harvest up to 15 gallons of shucked scallops per day, while those in the Cobscook Bay area are limited to 10 gallons. Cobscook Bay is the most fertile scallop fishing ground in the state.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at Maine Public
November 13, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — Maine is allowing scallop fishermen to catch the same amount of scallops in the coming season as they did in the previous one.
The Maine Department of Marine Resources says its advisory council has approved the specifications for the 2017-18 scallop fishing season. Last year, fishermen were allowed to harvested 15 gallons of scallops per day in the Cobscook Bay area and 10 gallons per day in the rest of the state.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at Maine Public
March 13, 2017 — PERRY, Maine — Fishing regulators are shutting down Maine’s most productive scallop fishing grounds for the season to protect the valuable shellfish.
Cobscook Bay is the most important scalloping area along the Maine cost. Maine marine resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher says it needs to be shut down for the season on Sunday to make sure it stays fertile.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at Maine Public
January 12, 2017 — AUGUSTA, Maine — Five weeks into the scallop season the winter weather has begun to take a toll on fishing days, but not on landings. According to the Department of Marine Resources, when fishermen have been able to get off the mooring they have been seeing good landing.
With snow, bitter temperatures and howling winds increasingly the norm since the last week of December, scallopers working outside the well-protected waters of Cobscook Bay got a break — or at least a chance for some relief — when several limited access areas opened to fishing on Monday, Jan. 2.
While four segments of the coast were closed to fishing on New Year’s Day after their harvest targets were reached, the opening of the limited access areas gave an additional opportunity to the drag fleet in more protected waters once a week.
“It was how the season was set up during rulemaking, with five-day weeks in Zone 2 in January and February,” DMR Resource Coordinator Trisha Cheney said Friday. Zone 2 stretches from Penobscot Bay eastward to the Lubec Narrows Bridge.
A number of areas that were subject to close monitoring were closed Jan. 1 after the fishery achieved harvest targets of between 30 percent and 40 percent of the “harvestable biomass” determined DMR using data collected during pre-season surveys. The department used emergency rulemaking in combination with in season monitoring efforts to ensure that the resource continues to rebuild by managing adaptively during the season and ensuring that areas are not overfished.