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.