aquacultural operations. Regulations vary with location, but leasing of the 

 area and/or attaining shore access is usually required. The state may close 

 mussel harvesting in areas where coliform bacteria counts are high or where 

 "red tide" and industrial pollution occur. 



The New England Fisheries Development Program, of the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service, is studying methods of sustaining the mussel fishery. 

 Problems include potential overharvesting (Lutz 1976) and the harvesting of 

 poor quality mussels (those that are small in size or contain pearls). If 

 harvests continue to be low in quality, commercial demand is likely to 

 decline. NMFS conducted a survey through MARITEC (1978) of mussel beds 

 between the Damariscotta estuary and Jonesport and made harvest and management 

 recommendations . 



Mussel culture is being explored as a means of meeting market demand (Lutz 

 1974; and Lutz and Porter 1977). Culturing experiments and a commercial 

 culturing operation have been successful in Maine, but financial gains have 

 been inadequate. However, mechanization of the currently labor-intensive 

 culturing process combined with increased demand for mussels could change this 

 situation. 



For culturing, individuals from natural populations at one location are 

 sometimes needed to supplement natural juvenile populations in other 

 locations. This practice potentially impinges on natural populations because 

 it strips juvenile mussels and associated animals (amphipods and oligochaetes) 

 from exposed rocky shores. Transplanting mussels carries the same risks as 

 transplanting clams, i.e., the potential for spreading "red tide" via ingested 

 cysts . 



SEA SCALLOP ( Placopecten magellanicus ) 



The sea scallop is a bivalve which lives on the sediment of subtidal areas. 

 The large muscle that holds the two shells of the scallop together is 

 harvested commercially for fresh food. Scallops are the most commercially 

 valuable (price/lb) shellfish species harvested in Maine. 



Distribution and Abundance 



Scallops are found from Newfoundland to North Carolina. Although they can 

 swim freely in the water, scallops do not migrate far. They often occur in 

 dense but scattered populations or beds. 



Commercial harvest occurs in Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Bay of Fundy 

 (Digby and Grand Manan) , embayments and mouths of estuaries on the coast of 

 Maine, Stellwagen Bank in the Gulf of Maine, Cape Cod Bay, Georges Bank, and 

 near Hudson, Baltimore and Norfolk Canyons at the edge of the continental 

 shelf (Altobello et al. 1976). The largest fishery is on Georges Bank where 

 65% of the total catch of the U.S. and Canada from 1940 to 1975 was taken 

 (personal communication from J. A. Posgay, National Marine Fisheries Service, 

 Woods Hole, MA; November, 1977). 



In Maine, the most important coastal scallop fishing areas are: Penobscot Bay 

 to Mt. Desert Island, the Harrington and Pleasant Rivers, and the Jonesport 

 area (Baird 1967). Lesser areas are Casco Bay, and the Piscataqua (Maine-New 



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