Select Board Grants Authority To Town Staff To Increase Commercial Scalloping Bushel Limit

The Select Board voted unanimously on Wednesday to authorize town staff to increase the daily bushel limit for scallops. The move was made without any discussion at the Select Board level, but the Harbor and Shellfish Advisory Board (HSAB) has discussed a possible increase several times in recent weeks.

During the most recent HSAB discussion on the subject, the general sentiment appeared to be that the conditions were favorable for an increase, but more information was needed from the scallopers and the fishery before a final decision could be made. That discussion was held on October 20th, and town staff may feel that things have changed in the intervening weeks.

“I’m cautious because I think that the majority of the scallops are, from what I’ve seen, in two or three places, and I’d like to see what’s in some of these other places in terms of abundance,” HSAB and Select Board member Bob DeCosta said.

DeCosta is recused from voting on the matter at both boards because he is a commercial scalloper. He spoke as a member of the public.

Adjustments to the bushel limit are typically authorized by the Select Board based on recommendations from HSAB. Delegating the authority to the Natural Resources Development will allow for faster action, rather than waiting for one of the Select Board's weekly meetings.

Last year, the Select Board made a similar move in January, increasing the limit from five to six bushels and authorizing town staff to approve a further increase after island scallopers lost an abnormally large number of days to cold weather during one of the most extreme winters in recent memory.

This year, the vote, which HSAB had requested, came much sooner. At one point, Nantucket’s scallop population appeared to be in dire straits. But that no longer seems to be the case. The island’s remaining scallopers, who number far fewer than even a decade ago, are returning to the dock having caught their limit early in the morning, and the town has increased the bushel limit, which is intended to protect the scallop population from overfishing, several times.

Tara Riley, the town's shellfish and aquatic resources manager, told HSAB that a benthic survey conducted by the town found scallop densities of 1.47 scallops per square meter, up from 0.96 scallops per square meter last year. Seed density was also high.

The last commercial season ended in March with 7,800 bushels landed - a drop off from the previous two seasons in which more than 10,000 bushels were collected in consecutive years. But that may have been due in part to the harsh winter marked by a deep freeze and numerous days of fishing lost to cold temperatures.