APPENDIX III APPENDIX III 
SCALLOPS 
There are three types of scallops harvested commercially 
in the U.S.: sea, bay, and calico. The sea scallop is the 
most important fishery, accounting for 74.4 percent of the 
total 1975 scallop landings and 80.6 percent of the value, 
using exvessel prices. Sea scallops are mollusk ‘shellfish 
usually found on gravel beds, sand, or pebbles mixed with 
shells. Adult scallops are basically sedentary bottom 
dwellers, though they can swim short distances by flexing 
their shells together. While individuals are mobile, tag- 
ging experiments indicate that populations do not migrate. 
Sea scallops have a saucer-shaped shell and grow as large 
as 8 inches in diameter. 
Sea scallops are found primarily along the Continental 
Shelf from the Strait of Belle Isle, Newfoundland, Canada 
to the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. Georges Bank, located off 
the coast of New England (see fig. 1), has been the major 
production area, accounting for about two-thirds of U.S. 
sea scallop landings in the past 3 decades. Massachusetts 
is the leading State in the sea scallop fishery with over 
half of the recorded landings and value in 1975. The sea 
scallop fishery in 1973 ranked ninth in value among U.S. 
Atlantic coast fisheries. In addition to the Atlantic fish- 
ery, there is a small sea scallop fishery off the coast of 
Alaska. 
Bay scallops are less plentiful. They are found mainly 
in grassy bottoms of shallow bays and estuaries from Cape 
Cod, Massachusetts to the Gulf of Mexico in 1- to 50-foot 
depths. Their maximum size is about three inches in diame- 
ter. The calico scallop is located along the Atlantic 
coast, from slightly north of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina 
to Florida and along the coast throughout the Gulf of Mex- 
ico. It is closely related to the bay scallop although 
Slightly larger and acquires the name "calico" from the 
mottled or calico appearance of the shells. 
STATUS OF THE FISHERIES 
Current harvest 
U.S. landings of scallops, as shown in figure 2, have 
followed a declining trend in the last decade. [In 1975, 
however, due to increased abundance in some areas, landings 
of sea scallops increased to 9.7 million pounds, from 6.5 
million pounds in 1974. The overall declining trend in sea 
scallop landings was caused by a combination of factors 
including reduced resource abundance and increased competi- 
tion from foreign imports. NMFS officials cited overfishing 
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