After Tough Year, Scallopers Pin Hopes On Moving Massive Seed Bed

After a dismal end to the commercial scalloping season last month, Nantucket fishermen and marine officials on Tuesday took to the waters of Madaket Harbor on a hopeful mission to improve prospects for next year’s harvest.

Following the discovery of a large bed of seed (juvenile) scallops late last year, members of the island’s scalloping fleet, along with the town’s Natural Resources Department and the private Nantucket Shellfish Association, set out Tuesday to move some of the seed to new locations in Madaket Harbor and off Tuckernuck.

The hope, said town shellfish biologist Tara Riley, is to improve the prospects of survival for the seed scallops by moving them to better habitat and reducing their density in one area. Riley and her team were joined by island scallopers including Bruce Cowan, Bob and Ray DeCosta, Bill Spencer, and members of the Souza family, along with Samantha Denette of the Nantucket Shellfish Association.

“We’ll be looking for survival rates and growth, and compare what was left behind to what was moved,” Riley said. “We’re hoping to get some information on whether this is in fact a good time to move seed, or should we do surveys earlier.”

They had been monitoring the massive bed of seed scallops over the winter, Riley said, and noticed recently that its conditions had deteriorated, with significant silting happening. The scallopers who assisted in the operation, she added, had a say in choosing the locations where the seed was moved to.

“The hope is that the moved seed has an increased chance of survival,” Denette said. “Seed is exciting because it’s a good indicator for the following season, but with seed, you don’t know if it’s going to live or not. You can’t bank on it. So were were working with Tara to monitor it and see how it was doing.”

Approximately 200 bushels of seed scallops were moved to new locations on Tuesday, and the group plans to relocate more on Wednesday and Thursday.