State Approves Extension Of Nantucket's Scalloping Season

The state Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) has approved the town's request to extend the bay scalloping season on Nantucket through April 11 due to the abundance of adult scallops in the harbors.

The extension includes both commercial and recreational scalloping.

"DMF has determined that in proportion to immature seed bay scallops there is an abundance of adult bay scallops that will not be harvested prior to the termination of the normal bay scallop season on March 31, 2025," DMF director Daniel McKiernan wrote to the Select Board on Friday. "Furthermore, it is believed that most of these adult scallops are unlikely to live long enough to spawn again this coming summer."

The request was first proposed by the Harbor & Shellfish Advisory Board and subsequently endorsed by the Select Board earlier this month.

Beyond the prevalence of adult bay scallops, the decision to extend the season was also based on the fact that there are significantly fewer fishermen actively scalloping, as well as the large number of fishing days lost due to cold temperatures over the winter.

Only 15 to 20 boats have been out scalloping through February, according to the town's Natural Resources Department director Jeff Carlson, but they have all been getting their six-bushel limit, generally before noon.

In his comments to the Select Board, Habor & Shellfish Advisory Board chair Andy Lowell referred to the town's shellfish regulations which prohibit commercial scalloping when the temperature drops below 28F, a rule intended to protect seed scallops from dying in frigid temperatures. Due to the cold weather this winter, more than two weeks of fishing have been lost in adherence to the regulation.

Tara Riley, the town's shellfish and aquatic resource manager, told the Select Board earlier this month that the estimated catch through the first four months of the commercial scalloping season was roughly 8,500 bushels.

"That's probably half of what's out there," Riley said.

Even so, the estimated catch to date for the current season nearly equals the 8,709 bushels landed by Nantucket's commercial fleet during the 2023-24 season. That was the first time the island's bay scallop harvest topped 8,000 bushels since the 2019-20 season.