Nantucket's Commercial Scallopers Granted Catch Increase After Losing Days To Cold Weather

The Select Board voted unanimously to increase the bay scallop bushel limit from five to six for the remainder of the season on Wednesday to make up for days scallopers have lost due to cold weather. The board also authorized town shellfish and aquatic resources manager Tara Riley to raise the limit again to seven without needing to go back before the Select Board if she feels it is warranted.

“I think it’s really important to support this fishery,” Select Board member Brooke Mohr said. “It has such historic background.”

The town's shellfish regulations prohibit commercial scalloping when the temperature drops below 28F, a rule intended to protect seed scallops from dying in frigid temperatures. The regulations also cap the number of bushels each licensed scalloper may catch per day at five during the season, which runs from Nov. 1 through March 31 each year. The Select Board has the discretion to increase the limit, and previously raised it to six bushels during the 2024-25 commercial scalloping season.

Select Board members and Harbor and Shellfish Advisory Board chair Andy Lowell also discussed the possibility of setting the limit to six for the entirety of next season as the island’s bay scallop population recovers and the number of scallopers continues to fall.

“If next season looks good, I think it would be great to open with six,” Select Board vice chair Matt Fee said.

Scallopers have so far lost 10 days to high winds and low temperatures, and are likely to lose more in the coming weeks. But the Select Board’s vote also underscores the rebound that Nantucket’s bay scallop population has experienced.

In recent years, the catch has been trending sharply up, despite a reduced fleet. It more than doubled in the 2022-23 season, and has continued to climb since, breaking 10,000 bushels for the first time since the 2017-18 season last year.

“The abundance is there,” Riley said.

Lowell said that this year, scallopers are returning to the dock as early as 10:30 a.m. under the current five-bushel limit.

The limit was raised to six bushels early in the season last year. At the time, the town’s Natural Resources Department said that there were more adult scallops in the water than at any time since 2012.

The rebound of the scallop population is likely in part the result of the town's concentrated conservation and propagation efforts. It may also be due to the number of scallopers actively fishing, which has dropped dramatically from the island’s scalloping heyday. In 2012, there were around 100 scallopers. Now, maybe 25 percent of that number remains.

“The fishery is changed,” Lowell said.

The Harbor and Shellfish Advisory Board voted unanimously at a recent meeting to recommend the increase to six bushels to the Select Board, citing the difficulty of extending the season into April. It will go into effect on February 2nd. The recommendation was also supported by the town’s Natural Resources Department.

Some scallopers, Lowell said, suggested raising the bushel limit all the way to 10.

“Honestly, if you wanted to consider more, I'm sure some scallopers would appreciate that,” he said.