The latest scientific surveys of scallop fishing areas in the Northeast U.S. show biomass decreased from 2023 to 2024 – which will likely result in a lower total allowable catch in 2025.
The scallop fishery in the Northeast U.S. is one of the most valuable fisheries in the country and has been grappling with lower quotas since a massive 2019 season saw the fishery land over 60 million pounds. That season was largely thanks to a massive recruitment event that occurred in the 2012 to 2013 scallop class, but now, those scallops have either been fished or aged out of the fishery.
According to the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC), biomass in the Georges Bank region increased slightly between 2022 and 2023 – part of the reason the fishery was granted a slightly higher TAC in 2024. NEFMC predicted a catch of 27.4 million pounds in 2024, up slightly from the 25 million pounds predicted in 2023.
Surveys performed in 2024 by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, UMass Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology, Maine Department of Marine Resources, and Coonamessett Farm Foundation, however, showed that the biomass has now dropped back down.
“The population of harvestable-sized scallops expected to be available for the 2025 fishing year also remains low and may result in reduced allocations to the fishery,” a NEFMC press release stated.
NEFMC Public Affairs Officer Janice Plante further explained to SeafoodSource that it may be a few years before scallops from solid recruitment classes begin to replenish the lower biomass.
“We expect the next couple of years will be challenging for the scallop fishery,” she said. “Overall exploitable biomass, or the biomass of scallops that are harvestable, are down. We’ve seen some good recruitment, but in many of the areas where we’re seeing this recruitment, the scallops are 2 years old and have a few more years to grow out before they can contribute to the fishery.”
The good recruitment to which Plante is referring includes a large recruitment event in the Nantucket Lightship South fishing area. While the event is not as large as the huge event in the 2012 to 2013 class, it is promising enough that Plante said the council is considering closing the area in order to give those scallops time to grow.
Plante added a caveat, though: The high density of recruitment means it is tough to predict how many of the scallops will survive long enough to be eligible for the fishery.
“The density is very high in that area, so we don’t know what will happen to those scallops,” Plante said. “But, it’s encouraging to see the new recruitment; it’s a strong recruitment event, and that’s a very encouraging sign.”
Another positive sign is in the Elephant Trunk fishing area, where a recruitment event bumped up overall biomass. That area will pose an even trickier problem for NEFMC, as there are also market-sized scallops mixed in with the smaller new scallops.
Plante said the council has asked for multiple potential alternatives for the 2025 fishing season that gauge the impact of closing Elephant Trunk on overall catch and the impact of having it open on the new scallops.
“When they’re intermixed, it’s challenging,” she said.
The market implications of a lower or flat scallop quota are also tough to predict.
Bristol Seafood CEO Peter Handy told SeafoodSource that U.S. consumption is relatively consistent. Bristol is one of the top importers of Japanese scallops each year and releases a regular scallop factbook about the species.
Handy said the U.S. typically consumes between 70 million and 90 million pounds of scallops each year.
“When the U.S. catch is higher, we import less, and when it’s lower, we import more,” he said.
In the last two years, Japan has taken advantage of the lower U.S. quota. When China instituted a ban on Japanese seafood in August 2023, Japan’s scallop industry lost its main customer and needed a new one – just as U.S. domestic supply decreased.
The trend of importing Hokkaido scallops isn’t new, Handy said. Typically, Japan is one of the top exporters to the U.S. alongside Canada – and Canada’s catch has been underwhelming as of late.
“Japan is helping to fill that void,” he said.
As early as January 2024, U.S. customs data was already showing an uptick in scallop exports from Japan to the U.S. The Japan Times reports that the prefecture of Hokkaido – which houses most of Japan’s scallop industry – is seeing the U.S. as a potential market for its products.
According to The Japan Times, scallop exports form Japan to the U.S. rose from 9,852 metric tons (MT) in the period between September 2022 and July 2023 to over 34,000 MT for the same period one year later, making the U.S. Hokkaido’s largest scallop export market.
While 34,000 MT would be greater than the entire U.S. catch, comparing Japanese data directly against U.S. data is not straightforward, Handy said.
“Some of the issues with Japan data is sometimes they refer to weight in shell stock, sometimes they refer to weight in meat, and sometimes it’s a mixed data set,” he said.
Bristol Seafood was a top importer of Japanese scallops in the U.S. last year, and Handy said that this year will likely be the same.
“Of course, we wish that there were more U.S. scallops around that could be harvested sustainably,” he said. “To me, it’s a healthy demonstration of us having a fishery that is science-based so it stays sustainable over the long haul.”
