Tisbury scallop season gets off to a good start

By Susan Safford - November 3, 2005

Normally quiet in the off-season, the Lagoon Pond boat landing was bustling with activity Saturday and Sunday, the opening of the recreational scallop season on pond waters for Oak Bluffs and Tisbury.

As scallop boats crisscrossed the water in search of the delectable shellfish, Derek Cimeno, Tisbury shellfish constable, and David Grunden, Oak Bluffs shellfish constable, kept watch from shore.

Regulations in both towns allow family permit holders to take one heaping bushel per week. Because the recreational season opened on Saturday, the last day of the week, family permit holders are allowed to fish both Saturday and Sunday, which made it possible to get two bushels prior to the opening of the pond's commercial season Monday.

"A bushel a day keeps the warden away," said Mr. Cimeno as he stood on the landing waiting to check off the names of fishermen to ensure that they took a limit of one bushel and no more. By most accounts, legal size scallops are plentiful this season.

Despite cold windy weather Saturday, Tisbury scallopers took 150 bushels out of the pond, said Mr. Cimeno. On Sunday they harvested an additional 230 bushels. "This is one of the better crops in my 10 years on the job," said Mr. Cimeno. Scalloping will continue as long as the crop remains healthy, perhaps as long as two months.

Scalloping requires a strong back and nimble hands. A good crew can make fast work of sorting legal size scallops from the seed scallops, crabs, seaweed, and bottom debris hauled up in a scallop drag and dumped on the culling board.

"Derek has done a good job managing the pond," said George Rogers as he pulled his scallop boat up to the dock with his 74-year-old mother, Doreen, and brother George on board.

"I've been scalloping for 54 years, ever since I was twenty," said Ms. Rogers. "Back then you didn't have motors, we used to have to row everywhere to get the scallops."

Mr. Cimeno attributed the good crop to last year's abundance of seed, young scallops without a distinctive growth ring, and the summer's dry weather which limited road and yard runoff that might degrade water quality in the pond.

The scallop harvest also helps pump money into the Island economy. Although the total Island commercial harvest is only a shadow of what it once was, Mr. Cimeno estimated that at $15 a pound wholesale, the pond's daily harvest is worth $84,000 to $90,000 a day.

The pond boundary shared by Oak Bluffs and Tisbury and designated by a series of buoy markers sometimes sparks turf battles, particularly when one town has an abundance of scallops. Fishermen have been known to cross the line.

"It's like the Hatfields and the McCoys around here," said Mr. Cimeno. "Someone already cut the buoy marker. We plan to send a diver down to repair it."

Bay scallops are prized around the country for their sweet, distinctive flavor. For many Vineyarders, a plate of freshly shucked scallops deep fried or simply sautéed is ample reward for a hard day on the water.

"These bay scallops are the best and the sweetest, and they're just found on Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and the Cape," said Mr. Cimeno.