Tag Archives: scallop season
Scallop season is underway
In pitch-black morning, the scallop draggers start heading out Penobscot Bay to be ready one-half hour before the sun rises in Augusta to drop their drags overboard and begin a day’s work. Daylight here already broke the horizon as the scallop fishery opens for the day in the Gulf of Maine. “When the season opens, it’s like the first day of school,” said David Tarr, a scalloper off Naskeag Point and a member of the state’s scallop advisory council. Now two weeks into the season, and Tarr says, “I think it’s been a good opening. Boats are keeping local. Whether dragging or diving, the daily limit is 15 gallons of meat that sells anywhere from $12 to $23 per pound, depending on its size. 8 photos, more, >>click to read<< 07:55
Long Island: When will bay scallops once again be plentiful?
After years of up and down harvests, 2021 is shaping up as another potentially poor year for bay scallops. Bay scallops have been a multi-million-dollar crop for the fishing industry, from the baymen or women who work hard to harvest them in, to the markets that sell them and the restaurants that feature them prominently on menus. The loss of this cash crop, such an iconic symbol of our bays, hurts many people and calls into question the present and future health of our bays, as changes in water temperatures and steady sea rise continue. For perspective, consider this: After the huge crops of previous years, a die-off in 1985 caused by algae blooms brought the scallop almost to extinction. >click to read< 11:07
Scallop season is underway
The scallop fishing season got underway in eastern Maine earlier this month and is already making news. In the waters between eastern Penobscot Bay and Cobscook Bay, the season for the handful of licensed scallop divers began Nov. 18 but the draggers couldn’t go to work until Dec. 2. In Cobscook Bay, the season for draggers also began Dec. 2 but divers had to wait until Dec. 5 to brave the chilly, turbulent waters way Downeast. >click to read< 20:14
Maine: Scallop season opens to positive early reports
The Downeast scallop season got underway this weekend and early reports are that the fleet was active, the fishing good and the price satisfactory. Divers got the first crack at scallops in Blue Hill Bay as their season opened on Saturday. Draggers had to wait until Monday to get out on the water. According to Marine Patrol Sgt. Colin MacDonald, plenty of them did despite less than ideal conditions. Saturday was a good day for diving. Though the temperature was chilly, scallop buyer Joshua Buxton said divers selling to him at the South Blue Hill pier all reported that there was no wind on the bay and that the water wasn’t rough. Monday was a different story,,, >click to read<10:20
‘White gold’ on deck of French trawler signals bumper haul of scallops
On the trawler Thierisa the mood was festive. It was the first day of the scallop season and the deck already groaned with the “white gold” of a bumper season in the waters off northern France. After two and a half hours on turbulent waters, they arrived at the fishing grounds but had to wait until noon and the start of the scallop season at Bay of the Seine. Police helicopters hovered to make sure no nets were lowered early. Northern France’s season for scallop, or “white gold”, runs from October to mid-May but in Bay of the Seine it starts in November. click here to read the story 12:17
Maine: Plenty of scallops, but prices are low
The price for scallops so far this season is considerably lower than last year. The Ellsworth American reported that with the start of the scallop season on Dec. 1 the price per pound is down $2 to $3 from 2016’s average of $12.77. It also appeared that scallops were plentiful, but small, which generally means lower prices. “I’ve heard the price is going to be low this year, but a lot of dealers were quoting prices last week that I thought were absurd,” Togue Brawn, owner of Downeast Dayboat Scallops in Portland, told the newspaper. click here to read the story 11:25
ELLSWORTH, Me. As predicted, DMR will likely shorten the scallop season
When Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher took the advice of his Scallop Advisory Council last year and set a 70-day fishing season for this winter (just 50 days in Cobscook Bay) he warned fishermen that DMR was likely to cut the season short. At an SAC meeting in Ellsworth last Thursday, the chickens came home to roost, or at least they were visible from the coop. Read the rest here 13:30
