netted draggers in Cobscook the annual bonanza. Jeff Alley at D/C Air & Seafood in Winter Harbor agreed with Rogde's view that the season was generally a bust. He said a lot of fishermen, particularly lobstermen who had a good year, have not bothered to rig over for dragging. He buys from 12 harvesters, all of whose landings are down. His divers generally bring him 30 to 35 count, he says, and his draggers 40 to 50 count, which fetch as little as $5.50 per pound.
    Jay Trenholm of Oak Island Seafood in Rockland, the state's largest scallop dealer, acknowledges that harvesters in Cobscook did well, but notes that statewide "the resource is in very poor shape." Recent figures from DMR sources cite a decline from 704 tons in 1993 to 483 tons in 1994, decreasing to 350 in 1998. Trenholm recalls that approximately 2,500 tons of scallops were landed in Maine in the early 1980s, and estimates that only around 300 tons will be landed in the next documented year. He says the uniform opening day reduced pressure on the traditional hot spots - 80 boats in Cobscook Bay December 1 rather than the usual 200 - but did not deal with the problem of diminishing supplies statewide.
    To try to replenish inshore scallop supplies, a number of industry people and resource managers are considering the idea of stock enhancement as practised by Japanese scallopers. Trenholm was part of a delegation that traveled to Japan last May to learn how the Japanese husband their resource. He reports that the Japanese "couldn't believe we still had a totally wild fishery."
    In Japan scallop stock enhancement has been practiced for 70 years, and the fishery is essentially a form of aquaculture. The Japanese zone their waters, says Trenholm, dictate the size of the zones and when and for how long they shall remain closed to harvesting. Scallops are harvested according to their age, and size tends to be uniform.
    Trenholm, who buys frozen scallops from all over the world and markets them throughout the United States, says he bought 800,000 pounds from Japan last year.
    Maine scallops, says Trenholm, are a "high end" product. To realize their value, however, buyers need 10 to 20 count scallops that will command a high boat price as they did as late as four years ago when that size prevailed.
    Currently, the market is seeing predominantly 20 to 30 and even 30 to 40 count scallops that net approximately $6.
    To maximize the profit of Maine scallops, Trenholm suggests that closing areas long enough to allow them to grow would benefit harvesters and buyers in the end. He cites the abundance of scallops that were harvested on Georges Bank last summer, after the area had been closed to scalloping for five years. "They were all under 10 count," he notes. "There's a lot of scallops out there," says Trenholm. "Leave them alone and they'll grow."
    Sheryl Harper of Fish Unlimited in Southwest Harbor agrees that the stock needs to be enhanced. During Maine's scallop season, she buys up and down the coast. Her husband Tim is a year-round scalloper and has fished his 65' scallop boat, Master Joel, the length of Maine's coast and offshore. Harper has personally witnessed the decline in scallop catches. While next year's increase in the legal ring size from 3-1/4 inches to 3-1/2 will help by allowing small scallops to escape, she feels more needs to be done and says the family boat could help. Harper advocates licensing the large draggers who go offshore to drag more than the current legal trip limit, and having them drop off the excess in an area designated for seeding and closed to dragging. She adamantly opposes closing down scalloping altogether and, if it should come to that, favors allowing the full-timers to continue dragging or be subsidized.
    Trenholm says he senses "real interest" on all levels to save the scallop before it is depleted beyond the point of regeneration. "It needs to be addressed," states the Rockland buyer. "Industry's going to have to do it. It's going to take a consortium [of harvesters, processors and buyers]. DMR will help, but they don't have hands on like industry."
    In two particular areas, Maine's inshore water and the closed areas of Georges Bank, the consortiums, Trenholm refers to, appear to be making progress. The delegation that returned from Japan has begun to experiment with the feasibility of collecting scallop spat from Maine waters and reseeding fertile areas such as South Bay and Gouldsboro Bay. In Japan, fishermen reseed areas, close them for three years and then harvest.
    Their efforts have met with some success, but Will Hopkins, director of the Cobscook Bay Resource Center, remains cautious. "The amount of scallops the Japanese fishermen are harvesting is incredible," says Hopkins. "But we still don't know if it will work here. Environmental conditions are similar in terms of water temperatures, but they have virtually no tide or current in Matsu Bay, where we looked at this." Hopkins noted that, although the delegation traveled all the way to Japan to study spat collection and stock enhancement, "it's the Canadians three miles away that have taught us how to collect spat here."
    Canadian fishermen and scientists in New Brunswick have been collecting spat for five years and shared their expertise and even some equipment with Hopkins' group.
    Scientist and fishermen from all along the coast began setting out several hundred spat collection bags in mid-September. The bags are intended to stay in the water until June, and many were shifted prior to the opening of scallop season.
    "We've seen some good results in some places, not so good in others," said Hopkins, "and that goes along with what the Canadians told us - that spat collection was very unpredictable."
    According to Hopkins, spat will be held over winter and released this coming summer in Cobscook Bay, but no areas will be closed to fishing as is done in Japan. "First we want to locate good sites for spat collection, and begin to understand the biology, before we create a management plan. If [reseeding] doesn't work then there'll be a lot of discussions we don't have to have." Kristen Porter, a scallop draggerman out of Cutler, is also reluctant to get on the regulatory bandwagon. "A lot of people want to regulate this right to death before we even know if works - some want to make spat collection mandatory."
    Porter wants to see this project work for all fishermen. "This has to stay a public resource. If we go the other way, how long before this is all owned by big business? - No time."
    While temporary closures have yet to become part of the Maine state scallop plan, they are being seriously discussed for federal waters. Based on the results of the experimental scallop fishery conducted last summer and fall in the closed areas of Georges Bank, the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) is considering using rotational closures as a way to mange the offshore scallop fishery. "We're looking at two or three options," said Paul Howard, executive director of the NEFMC. "The council is considering opening parts of all three closed areas in the next fishing year, and they are starting an amendment for rotational management."
    According to Howard, the industry and the Council agree that there would be a greater economic return and a more sustainable fishery if areas are closed and opened periodically, with seasons set to reduce bycatch of yellowtail. "And we can avoid days-at-sea."
    The incredible scallop harvest reaped from last summer's experimental fishery frustrated many fishermen who were left out. "General category permit holders were excluded from last year's fishery," said Howard. "But this option may allow them into Closed Area 1 and the Nantucket Lightship."
    The NEFMC will come to grips with the issue of a whole new scallop management regime during its January meeting. In Maine, the future of the scallop industry appears to hinge on the results of current reseeding experiments, but may be headed for dramatic changes.
    Two key questions, as people begin to invest in scallop rebuilding, will be, who makes the sacrifices and does the work, and who will reap the benefits?