GIANT SCALLOP PISHEKY OF MAINE. 
319 
although there are numbers of species that frequent the recesses and holes made by 
boring-sponges, etc. 
(c) Fish . — A small fish of the genus Liparis (the “sea snails,” so called) is some- 
times found in the scallop, where it goes for protection. It is supposed that in escap- 
ing from an enemy it darts between the open valves of a scallop, and these, closing, 
imprison the fish. It appears to exert no injurious effects on the mollusk, and, no 
doubt, is glad to escape as soon as the captor opens its valves. 
{(1) Annelids . — A number of species of worms are jiarasitic on the shell of the scal- 
lop. The worm tubes of some of them are large and strong, and, with the sponges, 
often bind the scallops together in a dense mass, as mentioned hereafter. 
A small annelid of the genus Spirorbis occurs abundantly on specimens of the scal- 
lop collected by the writer in Maine; the species is shown on the accompanying figure 
of .the scallop shell. 
C.— THE FISHERY. 
7.— ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT, AND PRESENT CONDITION 
In the numerous accounts of the scallop fishery contained in “ The Fisheries and 
Fishery Industries of the United States,” there is no reference to this industry in 
Maine, and it may, therefore, be assumed that in 1879 and 1880, the years embraced 
by that work and prior thereto, the species was unknown as an economic product.* 
Inquiry has failed to disclose the whereabouts of the giant scallop fishery referred to 
by lugersoll (see foot-note), which was discontinued on account of the depletion of the 
beds brought about by excessive dredging; but it is well known that in certain locali- 
ties this species of scallop has been used for local consumption for many years. 
The existence of large beds of the giant scallop on the coast of Maine, accompanied 
by an appreciation of their commercial value, became known to fishermen at a number 
of isolated places about the same time. From numerous inquiries among the fisher- 
men along dififerent portions of the coast, it would appear that in no locality is the 
fishery more than five or six years old, while in most of the centers it has been carried 
on less than three years, as will appear from the following history of its origin in the 
various sections : 
Beginning at the east, the towns in the waters adjacent to which the scallop fishery 
is or has been i^rosecuted, are Tremont, Mount Desert, Deer Isle, Sedgwick, Brooks- 
ville, Castine, Wiscasset, Edgecomb, Newcastle, Westport, Boothbay, and George- 
town. 
On the western side of MounI, Desert Island, in the town of the same name, the 
fishery for scallops originated in 1884. It was inaugurated by vessels coming from the 
* Iq his monograph on the scallop fishery, in volume 2 of section v of the above report, Mr. Ingersoll 
says (p. 570) : 
“The splendid large Peeten islandicus, •which formerly abounded on the coast of Maine and in the 
Bay of Fundy, is no-w so nearly extinct that it has become a xnize to the couchologist. This came 
about entirely through excessive raking and dredging for them.” 
It is suggested that Mr. Ingersoll -was probably referring to P. magellanicus and not P. islandicus, 
■which is a species inhabiting very deex* water and never the object of a fishery, or but sparingly used 
for food, so far as known. This view is borne ont by the fact that iu a subsequent jiaper on “The 
Scallop and its Fishery,” published by Mr. lugersoll in the American Naturalist (1886), substantially 
the same thought is expressed, P. tenuicostatus being substituted for P. islandicus. 
