Saving Seafood

MAINE: Good scallop season may be bound for a change

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.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Scallop draggers get started for year in Down East Maine

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

Maine’s rebuilt scallop fishery looks to year of more growth

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

Maine Scallopers Back On Water After Record Year In 2016

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

 

Maine’s Allowable Scallop Catch To Remain Same As Last Year

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

 

Maine’s Most Fertile Scalloping Ground Closed for Season

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

MAINE: Scallop season off to a good start

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.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

MAINE: Scallop Fishermen, Hurt by Weather, Will Get Extra Day

January 10, 2017 — LUBEC, Maine – Maine fishing regulators say they are allowing many of the state’s scallop fishermen to fish for an additional day per week because bad weather has hampered their ability to harvest the shellfish.

The state Department of Marine Resources says the dragger boat fleet that operates outside of the protected Cobscook Bay area will be afforded the extra day.

Regulators say fishermen are reporting good catches off of Maine when they are able to get out on the water. Prices are also strong. Maine scallops are some of the most sought after in the seafood industry.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Maine Public

MAINE: Scallop season opens with high hopes

November 29, 2016 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — After an eight-month hiatus when, like summer tourists, the only scallops in local stores are “from away,” the Maine scallop fishing season is finally opening, at least for a handful of harvesters.

All along the coastline, licensed scallop divers are allowed to start fishing for the succulent bivalves today, Thursday, Dec. 1. Dragger fishermen will have to wait to wet their gear until next Monday, Dec. 5.

The season opens on an optimistic note. Over the past five years, scallop landings have increased steadily, from just over 175,000 pounds of scallop meats (about 1.5 million pounds in the shell) during 2011 to almost 453,000 pounds in 2015.

As in the past several years, fishermen will have a 60-day season in state waters between the Maine-New Hampshire border and western Penobscot Bay (Zone 1), a 70 day season in the waters between eastern Penobscot Bay and the Lubec Narrows bridge (Zone 2) and a 50-day season in Cobscook Bay—the state’s most productive scallop fishing grounds.

Fishermen are subject to a daily possession limit of 15 gallons (about 135 pounds) of scallop meats in all state waters except Cobscook Bay where the daily limit is 10 gallons.

Because commercial fisheries landings are generally reported on an annual basis, it is can be difficult to tease out how well the fishery did during a single season which incorporates parts of two calendar years. Dealers can also be slow in reporting landings information.

That said, during the 2014-2015 fishing season Maine harvesters landed about 525,000 pounds of scallops worth some $6.5 million. Virtually all of those scallops came from state waters—inside the three-mile limit.

The number of active scallopers has increased steadily over the past seven years.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

MAINE: DMR to set winter scallop season dates

September 8, 2016 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — Labor Day Weekend has just ended and the Blue Hill Fair just closed, but winter is almost here.

On Monday, Sept. 12, the Department of Marine Resources will hold the first of three public hearings on a proposed rule setting the dates for the 2016-2017 scallop season. The hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Ellsworth City Hall.

In 2015, dealers reported scallop landings of 452,672 pounds to DMR, worth nearly $5.8 million. Those figures cover landings from Jan. 1 through April 11 — considered part of the 2014-2015 “season” — and December of last year. Landings from January through April of this year will be included in the 2016 statistics even though those scallops were harvested in the “last” season.

As there was last winter, the fishery will be subject to daily possession limits. In zones 1 and 2, from the New Hampshire border to Cobscook Bay, the limit is 15 gallons of scallop meats. In Zone 3 — Cobscook Bay — the possession limit is 10 gallons per day.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American