December 22,  2009

Outer Banks fishermen and epicureans are disappointed that, unlike last year, there will be no bay scallop season this winter.

“The season last year had tight harvest controls, but it did help commercial fishermen pay some bills and get through the slow winter months after flounder season,” said Mikey Daniels at Wanchese Fish Company, a seafood wholesaling firm that bought many of the scallops landed in Hatteras last year.

Ernie Foster, captain of the Albatross Fleet in Hatteras, said the atmosphere on the fishing docks brightened considerably when the state fisheries agency opened the season on Jan. 26.  The season ran until April 1, with commercial fishermen allowed to harvest up to five bushels of scallops on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

“The docks were the busiest places in the village last winter, and the scallop fishery provided work and income for fishermen who otherwise might have had neither,” he said.

Foster’s wife, food writer Lynne Foster, said some island families harvested scallops for personal consumption.

“Last winter’s bountiful scallop harvest made for fine dining on many Hatteras tables, but it also helped many families stretch their food budgets during difficult economic times,” she explained.

Ginny Luizer, a recreational fisherwoman who lives in Frisco, scalloped nearly every weekend in February and March.  She said she almost always harvested her one-half bushel limit in less than an hour, and sometimes in as little as 20 minutes.

Luizer said she has seen evidence of large numbers of bay scallops in the waters off Hatteras Island again this year, even to the point of making clamming difficult.   This month she also found parking lots close to popular harvest locations littered with scallops shells dropped by seagulls.

But Trish Murphey, biologist supervisor with the state fisheries agency, said the data collected by biologists shows a significant decline in the scallop population in eastern Pamlico Sound.

“The mean catch per unit effort in our sampling fell from 2.78 scallops per square meter in January, 2009 to 0.68, or less than one scallop, in October, 2009,” Murphey said.

Luizer said sampling techniques could account for the difference between the state report and what residents see.

For one thing, biologists sampled much farther from shore than where harvesters worked, according to Luizer

“Sampling at one site, Pelican Island, was closer to shore and showed an average of 7.2 scallops per square meter, closer to what harvesters found last winter,” she said.

Luizer noted that the high water levels, rain, and wind that marked October when the state sampled might have prevented biologists from finding scallops.

“I’ve been at a site when it was blowing and the water was rough and couldn’t find more than a handful of scallops.  Yet I’ve gone back the same day after the wind laid out and quickly collected my limit,” she explained.

She also said the timing of the state sampling could have resulted in inaccurate findings.

“The state is comparing counts taken in October this year to counts taken in January, 2009 and February, 2008.  There’s a huge difference in water temperatures in October and those in the winter.  Scallops don’t start showing up until December,” she said.

Murphey said many factors impact scallop abundance, including fresh water intrusion, wind, weather, and predation.

“Harvest pressure may play a role too,” she said.  “Looking at our information, what jumped out at me was there were population declines in places where harvesting was allowed last year, but a slight increase in Bogue Sound which remained closed.”

But Luzier said that the state’s own information shows that harvesting adult scallops that have spawned will not impact the population.

“The state had it right last year when they allowed harvesting after the scallops spawned in the fall.  Scallops don’t live long enough to spawn a second time, but for some reason the state would prefer that they die naturally rather than let us harvest them,” she said.

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