It is fact that Virginia’s scallop industry took an overworked fisheryand turned it into the state’s most valuable one. As Virginia’s seafood industries built on the Chesapeake Bay struggle, sea scallops can likely look forward to a good year in 2009. It is true that scallops business is booming in Virginia and in 2009, a region a few hours off the coast that has been closed since 2005 will likely reopen as part of rotational scheme designed to protect the fishery.
At Virginia seafood docks scallops bring in, by far, the most value of any species about $53 million a year in the most recent statistics. It is said that Atlantic sea scallops stand as evidence that depleted fishing stocks can recover with the right guidance. In the late 1990s collaboration between scientists and industry created a plan to revitalize the stocks from Cape Hatteras, N.C. to Maine and also to protect them going forward.
Virginia Institute of Marine Science professor Bill DuPaul said that fifteen years ago the fishermen were killing just about every 3-year-old scallop in the ocean. He added that an average day now hauls in about 2,500 pounds, and the occasional boon will land more than 4,000 a day, those in the industry say.
According to DuPaul the management plan lets the scallops live longer and grows larger before harvest, leading to huge increases in catch in the past decade. He also told that the management seems to be working quite well. This is the economic engine that’s running our commercial fishing industry.
Frank McLaughlin, general manager of Chesapeake Bay Packing, told that the changes have allowed the domestic scallop market to thrive. He claimed that scallop has completely rebuilt its stocks.
