One offshoot of running a company that’s been in the shellfish business for 90 years is aquatic and historical clutter. Ken Homan’s office at Braun Seafood in Cutchogue is an archive of shellfishing ephemera and Native American history, a collection that feels like a room at the American Museum of Natural History. READ
This year’s Peconic Bay scallop harvest started off with one of the strongest yields in years, according to local baymen and seafood retailers. READ
This year’s Peconic Bay scallop harvest is starting off with one of the strongest yields in years, according to local seafood markets and baymen.
The fall harvest is winding down on the North Fork. Grapes have been picked and are fermenting, pumpkins have been carved and apples have been turned into delicious pies and warm cider.
But for our local baymen and seafood lovers, another highly anticipated harvest has just begun — the opening of bay scallop season.
On the first day of Peconic Bay scallop season Monday, local fishermen and seafood retailers were lamenting what they called a rough start out on the water. READ
Orient Harbor on the opening day of scallop season. (Carrie Miller photo)
It’s an aquatic episode this week on North Fork in the News. (more…)
Gary Joyce of Aquebogue (left) and Ed Densieski of Riverhead sort through a catch. They said they often throw away more empty scallop shells than healthy keepers. (Credit: Carrie Miller)
Early Monday morning, under cover of darkness and beneath a star-lit sky, Ed Densieski and Gary Joyce boarded their custom-outfitted boat, dressed head to toe in vibrant all-weather gear.
Unfazed by the blustery chill, the pair headed out through Southold Bay, with Brick Cove Marina at their backs.
It was the start of their 16th scalloping season and, as Mr. Densieski said, “There’s only one opening day.” (more…)
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Map.
• The scallop can be found in bays from Cape Cod to the Gulf of Mexico and even in Nova Scotia. Locally, bay scallops are found mostly in the Peconics, Great South Bay, Moriches Bay and Shinnecock Bay. (more…)
KATHARINE SCHROEDER FILE PHOTO | A freshly shucked scallop on the half-shell.
Sunrise today marked the official opening of scalloping season on the North Fork.
Area baymen are heading out into state and Southold Town waters in search of the Atlantic bay scallop, found mostly in the small bays and harbors of the Peconic Bay, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
Ed Densieski, a baymen from Riverhead said, “you never really know what to expect until the first day of the season.”
He has gone out scouting bay waters for baby scallops, and said he was hopeful it was going to be a good season.
According to the Peconic Estuary Program, during scalloping’s height about 500,000 pounds of bay scallops a season could be harvested from bay waters – equaling almost $2 million in dockside value.
But the scallop population was soon decimated following the first appearance of brown tide in 1985.
The sought-after shellfish has since been making a comeback over the past decade, according to the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County.
In Southold and Riverhead Town waters, commercial fisherman are limited to five bushels of scallops per person per day.
Two or more people occupying the same boat may take not more than 10 bushels of scallops per day for commercial purposes.
Recreational fisherman can harvest a limit of one bushel per person per day.
BETH YOUNG PHOTO | Cornell Cooperative Extension and Empire State Development Corporation staff toss adult scallops into the Peconic Bay off Cedar Beach Friday afternoon. The state recently awarded a $182,000 grant to the project.
The folks working to rebuild the stock of Peconic Bay scallops have a new best friend in the state government.
Researchers at Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Peconic Bay scallop restoration program, based at Cornell’s Cedar Beach, Southold, marine laboratory, had a special visit Friday afternoon from Kenneth Adams, commissioner of the Empire State Development Corporation. The corporation awarded a $182,000 grant earlier this year toward the continuing scallop project.
Lead researchers Dr. Stephen Tettelbach of Long Island University and Dr. Chris Smith of Cornell said they’ve used the funds to expand the hatchery and hire additional employees to help grow scallops to full size in the lab.
“We’ve increased production in our hatchery,” said Dr. Tettelbach. “We plan to grow the scallops from spring to market size in the fall. This is the first time it’s being done in New York State. Other states are selling cultured scallops.”
Dr. Tettelbach said the scallops, which are smaller than wild scallops, will likely be sold whole in the shell.
“It’s a different way of marketing, a different market niche,” he said.
Since scallops are short-lived, usually living no more than two years, their contribution to the population is limited to one spawning season.
Dr. Smith said program researchers have also used grant funds to expand their long-line grow-out system in Orient Harbor. In that system, scallop larvae collect on a mesh surface inside an aerated bag that protects them from predators. Initially, researchers were using the bags, known as spat collectors, as a tool to quantify the number of scallops in the bay. They’re now using them as nurseries for scallops cultivated by humans.
“We’re now using Japanese techniques where you use spat collectors to produce numbers of scallops,” he said. “It’s increasing our capability of spawning and growing scallops.”
Mr. Adams said his office had received marching orders from Governor Andrew Cuomo to provide $785 million in grants by asking regional Economic Development Corporations for advice on the most crucial projects in their areas, instead of having the state dictate where the money would go. More than 700 grants were awarded.
Kevin Law, president of the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council and a former head of the Long Island Power Authority, brought the scallop project to Mr. Adams’ attention.
“This is an incredible, historical, vital natural asset,” Mr. Adams said of the scallop fishery. “Fisheries are a very important part of the regional economy. How would I know about this project sitting back in Albany?
“It really worked well,” he added. “I’d like to think this is the beginning of a long and healthy relationship.”
“I think scallops brought us over the line,” Mr. Law said Friday afternoon at a ceremony on a barge overlooking the laboratory. “Everybody had high tech, but nobody else had scallops.”
Dr. Smith estimated that the scallop industry, which had a negligible economic value for years after the brown tide destroyed the fishery in 1985, brought $3 million in economic activity to the region in 2010 after his research team helped to rebuild the fishery. He estimated the 2010 numbers were about 10 percent of the value of the industry before the brown tide hit.
Dr. Smith said his group hopes to continue building the number of scallops in the bays until there are three to five scallops per square meter on the bottom.
“I think we’re within a few years of that,” he said.
“Can you do lobsters next?” asked Mr. Adams.
“Lobsters are a whole different story,” said Dr. Smith.