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Scientists: scallop abundance up but biomass down; recruitment of small scallops weighs on current catch
Summary
Researchers and council staff told state senators that recent large recruitment events have increased scallop numbers but not biomass because many new scallops are below the dredge selectivity threshold; management uncertainty and changing ocean conditions have raised natural mortality and complicated quota advice.
Scientists from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and New England Fishery Management Council staff told a joint Senate hearing that the sea scallop resource is showing strong recruitment but low exploitable biomass, a pattern that reduces immediate catch advice despite a growing number of animals.
Dr. Kevin Stokesbury, dean at UMass Dartmouth’s School of Marine Science and Technology, described the surveys his group has run with industry partners since 1999 and summarized recent results: “there's about 24,000,000,000 scallops in our resource right now,” he said, meaning a very large number of small animals. He explained that because many of those scallops are too small to be retained by the fishery’s 4‑inch dredge ring, total biomass (weight) remains depressed even as abundance (numbers) rises.
Dr. Kate O’Keefe said scientific uncertainty — including variability in meat weight, increasing non‑fishing mortality and predator dynamics — has required larger buffers when managers set annual catch limits, which can lower quotas. She described the Magnuson‑Stevens Act framework that requires annual catch limits and the council’s use of surveys, catch reporting and stock assessments to set management advice.
Scientists cited several specific drivers: large episodic recruitments that produce many small scallops, changes in meat weight connected to oceanographic conditions, and increased starfish predation and disease histories that may have raised natural mortality. Kevin Stokesbury and others noted that extreme recruitments can later yield higher biomass if protected through rotational closures long enough for scallops to grow into the exploitable size class.
Current management and short‑term numbers: Council staff noted that scallop management currently operates under Scallop Framework 39 (effective April 1, 2025 through March 31, 2026), which sets days‑at‑sea, allocations to rotational areas and a general‑category quota. Council staff projected 2025 fishery revenue at about $350,000,000 for the fishing year. Witnesses said New Bedford and Gloucester remain high‑engagement ports, and that Massachusetts has roughly 207 federal scallop permits with home ports in the state (about half of the coastwide total), while roughly 300 vessels use dredge gear across the resource.
The scientists and council staff emphasized that continued investment in surveys and the Research Set Aside (RSA) program — industry‑funded survey support — is central to informed, adaptive management.
The hearing did not change fishery rules. Scientists urged continued monitoring, careful use of rotational closures and improved modeling transparency to reduce uncertainty in catch advice.
