Middle Atlantic 



State officials expect the population to 

 recover over the next two years. New 

 York has the only sizeable mussel 

 production in the region; landings 

 increased from 154,000 pounds in 

 1985 to 585,000 pounds in 1989. 

 With the support of 15 hatcheries, 

 clam landings, primarily in Great 

 South Bay, remain at about nine 

 million pounds per year. 



New Jersey offshore waters provided 

 the largest harvest of surf clams and 

 ocean quahogs in the region, totaling 

 over 71 million pounds in 1989. New 

 Jersey currently has 10 hard clam 

 hatcheries and 30 growers, which 

 should increase the hard clam land- 

 ings in the near future. Scallop 

 landings from offshore harvest in- 

 creased from 1 .7 million to almost four 

 million pounds between 1985 and 

 1989. 



Although consumer demands for 

 Maryland clams increased during the 

 1980s, landings decreased from 23 

 million pounds to eight million pounds 

 between 1985 and 1989. 



Clam landings in Virginia declined 

 from 14 million pounds in 1985 to nine 

 million pounds in 1989. However, 

 landings of scallops tripled to almost 

 eight million pounds. This represents 

 a trend away from declining estuarine 

 species toward more abundant 

 offshore species. 



24 



