Wild Scallop Stock Enhancement Project
Marsden Brewer, Coordinator
A Fishing Community Based Project


September 2002 update:

We have just finished up year three of the project and it is already time to start on year four. On the first Sunday in May fishermen, scientists, and some volunteers from the Eastern Penobscot Bay Environmental Alliance got together at the Stonington Fish Pier to get the scallop counts on a subset of the bags that were set the previous September. With fishermen emptying the bags, the scientists measuring the samples, and our friends from EPBEA doing the counting of the measured subsets along with the paperwork we were able to process around 45 sample bags in about four hours.

What we saw was that larval settlement was down by about 2/3 this year compared to the last two years. It is to early to see what if any correlation this has to scallop abundance, but with no serious change in fishing pressure over the last three or four years it is encouraging to see that there may be factors besides just fishing pressure that effect species abundance. With the increase in the amount of gear set and the decrease in settlement we were able to release around two million scallops this year in Penobscot, Blue Hill, and Jericho Bays this year.

On the first Sunday in July a group of fishermen, scientists, an anthropology student, and the Executive Director of the Downeast Lobsterman's Association got together to seed an area with scallops for the scientist's to monitor over the next few years. Utilizing three boats we were able to do some tagging and release a couple hundred thousand scallops in a couple of hours. From there we went to Farrel's Island for a Downeast Lobster Bake and some time for everyone to talk in a relaxed atmosphere.


Many thanks to Nelson and Clare Grindal for their help and support over the years and the use of their Island, one of the last locally owned Islands in our area.

With experience being, what you get when you don't get what you're after, it is safe to say we got some experience this year. Some fishermen decided to winter their bags over in the same place that they collected the scallop spat, in the middle of the shrimp tows. Between the winter storms, the oil tankers, barges, and the shrimpers there was some gear loss. To their credit the guys that got into the gear while shrimping took the time to clear the gear and transfer it to a local lobsterman to bring in for us, accidents happen! After a tow or two and they realized that there was gear in the tows they did a pretty good job working around it. Listening to the fishermen involved in the project, it sounds like most of them will be moving their gear in to more sheltered locations late this fall "experience". Between setting the gear, moving it to winter over, cleaning up the warps in the spring and just keeping an eye on the gear, untangling snarls or replacing an occasional buoy or toggle this is a project that works best for full time fishermen. Set in September release in July, gear is in the water most of the year and, as with all fisheries, if ya got gear in the water and you expect to keep it you better be around to tend it. Fishermen are tolerant but there are limits.

I talked to a fisherman the other day while waiting in line for bait that recently did a dive on a spot that "some of the boys planted last year". He reported that it looked like most of the scallops that were planted there the year before were still there and you would be amazed at how fast they were growing.

This year we will be setting gear the 3rd week in September. There is still some free gear available for this year, thanks to the folks at the Northeast Consortium. Fishermen interested in becoming involved in the project and getting some of the gear should contact either Dana Morse, Sea Grant Extension Agent @ 563-3146 ext 205 or Scott Feindal, DMR Scallop Scientist @ 633-9500. Sometimes these guys are a little hard to get in touch with when you are working around a fishing schedule so if you have a hard time connecting with them don't hesitate to give me a call at 367-5100.