Forget About 2009 Stonington Scalloping

Scup

Met the Stonington Shellfishing Commissioner at Wilcox yesterday, and asked about the current Stonington bay scallop outlook. He told me to forget about it! Very sad as I used to love to go for them in Niantic Bay and in and around the Barn Island area. It seems that it was not that long ago I could come home with a bushel of them. What great eating they were. Unless one has sat down to a meal of New England bay scallops, you will never know what you have been missing. What a shame we lost the ability to maintain our scallop beds!

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"Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go" by William Feather

74Formula233

We used to scallop on the shallow in Salt Pond (Galilee) back in the day. The one directly between the lobster boat dockage and snug harbor, in the middle. Used to load up, all hand plucking, and have so many gallon bags full of shucked scallops in the freezer that we HAD to eat them at least once a week LOL! (Had to, I know, real tough!)

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stripey

That's unfortunate....

I do know that Great Salt Pond has quite a few. Not sure if they are polluted or not, but I saw tons of them diving this summer in there. Coecles Harbor on Shelter island also had quite a few over the summer.

74Formula233

Oh god I would think they would be polluted, not sure. There were shitloads back then (80's).

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Andy

Niantic bay was the best spot and the scallops were the best eating ,thanks to the Swans eating all the eel grass that ended any re seeding.........

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Scup

I think Niantic bay had a few more problems than the swans. The town fathers were very greedy. They quickly learned that the more scallops permits you issue the more money you rake in. Anyone and everyone could scallop as long as you purchased the permits. To hell with what the scallop beds could safely tolerate, sell as many permits as you could and go for the $$$$. I never seen so many boats and look boxes in my life during the scallop season. Those scallop beds were extremely stressed because of the greed of the town fathers. There also has to other reasons why the beds went to hell other than just the swans. In Stonington we have our swans too, and we have loads of eel grass, but we do not have the scallops. We do have starfish, but we always had that scallop predator. Perhaps someone like JackC could provide some answers as he seems to more in touch with the reasons of why things are the way they are.

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"Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go" by William Feather