Family scalloping opened in the Lagoon Pond Saturday and Islanders took advantage of a mild November day to go out and collect heaping baskets. Once found from Cape Cod to Long Island, wild bay scallops are now largely unique to southeastern Massachusetts.
Bay scallop season is now in full swing across the Island, with all towns but Aquinnah open for family scalloping, and commercial seasons set to open in some places Monday.
Recreational scalloping opened in the Lagoon Pond on Saturday in Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven. Family permit holders were out on the pond, taking advantage of a mild November day to collect heaping baskets of scallops. Edgartown, Oak Bluffs and Chilmark opened their family seasons in October.
Family scallopers take advantage of mild weather conditions.
Family scallopers take advantage of mild weather conditions.
The commercial scallop season opened in Chilmark on Nov. 1. Commercial seasons open in Edgartown and Vineyard Haven (Lagoon) on Monday. Oak Bluffs opened its commercial season in late October. Aquinnah typically opens its season later in the fall. Last year was a banner year for bay scallops up-Island, and the season was extended well into late spring for the first time in recent memory.
Early harvest reports this year are average to good.
Once prevalent from Cape Cod to Long Island, bay scallops today are largely unique to Southeastern Massachusetts with wild scallop beds still found on the Vineyard, Nantucket and outer Cape Cod. The disappearance of the scallops is tied directly to disappearing eel grass beds, which are sensitive to pollution.
Comments
Glad the scallops are still
Carol formerly ChilmarkGlad the scallops are still there on MVY. When I was a kid in the 1960s, we lived near the shore of Great South Bay on Long Island (about halfway between NYC & Montauk), and the bay shore was littered with scallop shells, always. Seagulls would get the scallops, fly high in the air and drop them in the parking lot to break them open - I remember seeing that, and my mother explaining what they were doing, when I was 5 or 6.
I am sad if it is true that they only remain in SE Mass. We need to invest a LOT MORE MONEY in environmental restoration in this country.
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