Market Name: Scallop, sea scallop
Scientific Name: Placopecten magellanicus
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| Harvested from North Carolina to Newfoundland, sea scallops are the standard against which other scallops are measured. The large (up to 8 in.)scallop is dredged from depths of 180 to 600 ft and almost always shucked at sea. Prime harvest areas are the mid-Atlantic coast, Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank and Nantucket Shoals. Effort shifted from Georges Bank to the mid-Atlantic after 1993, when federal regulations aimed at protecting groundfish closed areas also frequented by scallopers. Rules designed to rein in an over-aggressive U.S. sea scallop fishery include a moratorium on new entrants, a limit on crew size and a limit on the number of days fishermen may fish. Also, scallop dredges must allow escapement of scallops whose shells measure less than 3 1/2 in. - a new rule replacing requirements for minimum meat counts per pound. Sea scallops are farmed in Canada and the United States, though production is quite limited. As much as 80 percent of Canada's sea scallop production is consumed in the United States. Domestic demand for sea scallops is increasing, as markets open in the Midwest and other land-locked locales. |
Markets: US - Japan - Europe