Atlantic Sea Scallops

Sustainable and Healthy

The U.S. Sea Scallop fishery is the largest wild scallop fishery in the world. Their habitat ranges from the Canadian Georges Bank as far south as North Carolina. Since 1982 this shell fish has been managed by the New England and Mid Atlantic Management Councils.

Harvesting is controlled by rotating closures of scallop beds, which are marked by a grid, as seen below. The grid changes as reports of landings come in. This year Area 1, Area 2, Hudson Canyon and Delmarva will open.

Vessels that fish these grounds are managed through a permit system. The permits limit days at sea, number of trips and amount of scallops caught. There is also an independent observer for the large ship category. He will monitor handling and by-catch. These ships can stay up to two weeks in these areas and catch up to 18,000lbs of meat per trip. There is also a day trip category, which is limited to 400lbs of meat per trip.

This management program is one of the most successful of its kind. Sustainability means that this species is harvested in a way that it can replenish what is harvested yearly. The Atlantic Sea scallop bio mass has a sustainability factor greater than one, which means it is expanding, rather than just maintaining. In less than 10 years total landings and average scallop size has increased two fold. New Bedford, Massachusetts and Newport News, Virginia are responsible for the majority of landings. New Jersey also has a small scallop fleet.