Nantucket's Family Scalloping Season Gets Underway

Nantucket's recreational scalloping season - a fall tradition stretching back decades - will begin at daybreak on Wednesday. 

Tara Riley, the town's shellfish and aquatic resources manager, and her team have been surveying areas of Nantucket Harbor and Madaket Harbor in recent weeks, and she told the Current that pushrakers and snorkelers should find plenty of adult scallops in areas all over Nantucket Harbor when the season opens on Wednesday. The efforts to move seed around the harbor appear to have paid off, she said.

"I think things are looking well, but we still have to run our survey numbers and compile and do comparisons," Riley said last Friday. "Overall, the seed we moved last year around Nantucket Harbor did well. There was some mortality, which can be expected, but it seems like there are plenty of adult scallops in pretty much all areas of the harbor. I think people will be surprised at where they're finding scallops there, and it’s because we moved them."

Madaket Harbor, however, might be a different story.

"We didn’t see a lot of scallops in (in Madaket), and there was a lot of macro algae, lyngbya, in the middle of Madaket Harbor. That was a little surprising, and it did not look great at all. It's a little concerning, I think, but we need to get deeper into that harbor and see what’s going on." 

To participate in the island's recreational scalloping season, residents must obtain a shellfish permit button from the town of Nantucket and have it on display while scalloping. Those buttons are available at the town's Public Safety Facility at 4 Fairgrounds Road at a cost of $35 for year-round residents and are free for those over 60 years old. Non-residents can apply for a one-week permit at a cost of $50, or one year for $125. All recreational scallopers are limited to one bushel basket per week, and the days are limited to Wednesday through Sunday.