Nantucket Commercial Scallop Season Tops 10,000 Bushels For First Time Since 2017-18

Nantucket's commercial scalloping season comes to an end today and island fishermen have landed more than 10,000 bushels of the prized shellfish for the first time since the 2017-2018 season.

The season was highlighted by an abundance of adult scallops in the harbors that prompted state and local officials to grant requests to both raise the per-day bushel limit for fishermen and extend the season to April 11th. It was also marked by cold temperatures that resulted in the loss of nearly two weeks of fishing, and the continued decline in the number of commercial scallopers on the water.

Nevertheless, the town's Natural Resources Department stated the 2024-2025 commercial scalloping season will top 10,000 bushels, a positive sign for the fishery, the health of the harbors, and the town's bay scallop propagation efforts. And that number may rise slightly as the final bushel reports are tallied.

"Over 10,000 is a good, general number to report which we have not been above since the 2017-2018 season," said Tara Riley, the town's shellfish and aquatic resources manager. "Overall I'm pretty happy with that number with the size of the fishery."

The tally represents a 15 percent increase over last season's total of 8,709 bushels.

Riley emphasized that further study and analysis of the data gathered over the season - along with upcoming surveys to determine how many adult scallops went uncaught this year - will be necessary to fully assess the status of the fishery.

"I think it's a combination of all our restoration efforts, but I think also, unfortunately, the participation in the fishery has gone down," Riley said. "I personally think we could have gone to 10 (bushel limit) this year. We’ve had years in the past where we had similar densities of scallops in our surveys, and a lot more people participating and fishing and they brought in 18,000 bushels. You never think you’re going to have too many scallops. But now we’re in a situation where the fishery needs a revitalization, meaning people need to be reintroduced to it."