APPENDIX III APPENDIX III 
Many of the vessels can quickly be converted between 
trawling for groundfish and scalloping to accommodate chang- 
ing fishing and marketing conditions. In recent years, 
with declining stocks and increased foreign competition, 
many of the U.S. scallopers have transferred their operations 
to groundfishing. The total number of vessels fishing for 
sea scallops as shown in table 2 greatly declined. However, 
total U.S. and Canadian fishing effort is approximately 
the same as in the early 1960s. The number of boats (under 
5 tons), mostly fishing out of Maine ports, has greatly 
increased. In 1966, 36 boats harvested sea scallops, while 
in 1972, there were 174 boats in the fishery. Detailed 
evaluations of the fleet's condition were not available; 
however, industry and NMFS officials consider the sea scal- 
lop fleet to be in generally good condition. 
TABLE 2 
NUMBER OF VESSELS HARVESTING 
ATLANTIC SEA SCALLOPS 
Year Number of Vessels 
1958 164 
1959 160 
1960 11'5)5) 
ILS Ib IL 333! 
1962 IYAAL 
1963 95 
1964 93 
1965 IL5)5} 
1966 23 
1967 WIL 
1968 F/O) 
1969 149 
1970 82 
iS) 7/1. 76 
1972 90 
Products and processing 
Processing of most sea scallops begins at sea right 
after the dredge is hauled up and the contents emptied on 
deck. The sweet flavored muscle, referred to as the "eye," 
is removed (manually shucked) from the shell. The rest of 
the scallop is discarded overboard. Meats are washed in sea 
water, packed in new clean muslin bags holding about 40 
pounds, and stored under ice. Since scallops die shortly 
after being taken from the water, they are shucked aboard 
ship. Plant processing of scallops consists of rewashing 
226 
