![]() “One scallop per image is considered high density, so seeing hundreds in an image is really exciting, and potentially very good news for future harvests.” “The images are amazing, and we have not seen densities like this since 2003,” said Deborah Hart, a mathematical biologist at the Woods Hole Laboratory of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) who also leads the agency’s sea scallop stock assessment effort. Other colorful images captured by the HabCam showed swimming scallops, sea stars and crabs-both scallop predators-and many species of fish, squid and sponges. NOAA’s HabCamV4, a towed imaging and sensor platform, has photographed miles of sea bottom packed with as many as 350 sea scallops in less than 1 square meter (less than three square feet). Current and accurate information related to the abundance and distribution of adult and juvenile scallops is essential for managers to respond to changes in resource subunits.NOAA researchers and colleagues from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have reported what appears to be a banner year for young sea scallops off the Delmarva Peninsula in mid-Atlantic waters of the U.S. The continued prosperity of scallop spatial management is dependent on both periodic and large incoming year classes, as well as, a mechanism to delineate the scale of a recruitment event and subsequently monitor the growth and abundance of these scallops over time. While this represents a management success, it also highlights the extent to which landings are dependent on the success of this strategy. Approximately half of the sea scallop industry’s current annual landings come from areas under this rotational harvest strategy. In the last decade, rotational area management has provided a mechanism to protect juvenile scallops from fishing mortality by closing areas based upon scallop abundance and age distribution. ![]() ![]() The strategy of closing or limiting activities in certain areas for specific lengths of time has gained support as a method to conserve and enhance the sea scallop resource. For the sea scallop, Placopecten magellanicus, the concepts of space and time have emerged as the basis of an effective management tool. ![]()
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