Opening day a bust for bay scallops

On Monday, Nov. 3, opening day for Peconic Bay scallops, a few stubborn Shelter Islanders went out to fish, but the scallops were a no-show. 

Prior to 2019, Peconic Bay scallops were a source of winter income for East End fishers, who counted on the scallop harvests of November and December to help pay for Christmas. But mass die-offs of adult scallops have persisted due to a parasitic infection and the reduced genetic diversity fueled by the relentless warming of water in the Peconic Bay system.  

A restoration program, centered at the Cornell Cooperative Extension in Southold, has been seeding the bays with the spat of wild scallops from Moriches Bay and Martha’s Vineyard, but so far there are still very few adult bay scallops to go around on opening day. 

Bay scallops can be harvested from the first Monday in November to March 31. According to the State regulations, they must be 2-1/4 inch length from mid-hinge to mid-bill and display an annual growth ring.

Donna and Wayne King of Shelter Island proved once again that fishermen do not retire. Well into their golden years, they went out on Monday from the Town dock on Cobbetts Lane in search of scallops and returned six hours later with 37. Once shucked they had about 10 ounces, barely enough for dinner, but Ms. King called it a good day. She declared, “We will keep going out on opening day as long as we are physically able.” 

Keith Clark and his wife Louise are almost as stubborn as the Kings, but they did not go out on Monday, and if it is as bad as Mr. Clark heard, they may not go out at all. He said he spoke with friends who went all the way to Fishers Island and back and got eight scallops.

Charlie Manwaring, owner of Southold Fish Market, had no scallops to sell on Monday afternoon, but by 6 a.m. Tuesday, he had a few bushels. He predicts scallop season will be over long before March. With so few mature scallops to harvest, he’s expecting to have 40 or 50 bushels to sell initially, but after that, all bets are off.  

“Once guys have to kind of grind for it, they won’t be going,” he said. 

Mr. Manwaring objects to plans to introduce heat-tolerant and parasite-resistant seed scallops from Massachusetts, feeling that introducing scallops from elsewhere is a bad idea.  “Leave the bay alone and let it heal,” he said.