Tag Archives: bayman Tom Field
Opening day is a no show for scallops and baymen
Shelter Island’s town dock was deserted, not what you expect on opening day for bay scallop fishing. A few minutes later, bayman John Kotula arrived, but not to go scalloping. “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Kotula said, ignoring a stiff wind and soul-sapping 39 degrees.,, Keith and Louise Clark of Shelter Island renewed the license for the scallop-processing facility in their basement, an act that was equal parts stubbornness and ungrounded optimism. The death of the adult bay scallops in 2019 was shocking, but hope truly eroded in August of this year when researchers and baymen documented a second mass mortality. >click to read< 07:57
One day into the new season, and there are few if any adult scallops – For Ms. Phillips and her husband, Mark, a commercial fisherman who seems to work around the clock all year long, their family-owned seafood business on the creek in Greenport diversified long ago to help them weather situations like this year’s scallop crop. “But this lack of scallops will really hurt so many people who each year depend on them for their income.” >click to read<
