A Most Thankful Harvest
A Shelter Island bayman shows off his harvest
When the 2023 scallop season opened in New York State waters on Monday, November 6, it seemed like the East End harvest was going to be a meager one for the fifth consecutive year – but Shelter Island’s baymen and residents joyously embraced a few bountiful days once town waters opened the following week.
There are great times in New Suffolk when scallops are in season
The bay scallop, Argopecten irradians, is a bivalve species local to the Peconic Bay Estuary system, particularly thriving in its eelgrass meadows. For generations, bay scallops have been an economically and culturally important harvest in the area. As reported in the New York Times in 1907:
“Aside from the commercial value of this industry to New Suffolk and the women of that section of Long Island, the scallop season down around Peconic Bay has its social aspect. The shacks where the fish are opened are cheery places o’ nights with their flaring lights and their glowing fires, and the villagers are wont to congregate in them, partly for their snugness and partly because Beauty dwells therein for the time being. The music of banjos and accordions floats out on the night air, and the idlers and workers lift up their voices in song. There are great times in New Suffolk when scallops are in season.”
But with the start of the brown tides in the 1980s, came a crash in the scallop populations, along with so many other marine species within the Peconics. Over the years, Cornell Cooperative Extension Marine Program has been working to help restore those populations – spawning adults in the shellfish hatchery, tending to the juveniles in nets, and finally, seeding them in town waters – and had been seeing success through the return of a scallop harvest.
Unfortunately, in 2019 the East End began to experience yet another downturn, this time for different reasons – CCE Marine’s hatchery and research teams have been continuously working to try to identify the causes and viable solutions.
Seeding juvenile scallop “bugs” in Coecles Harbor
One restoration method that we employ is the creation of “spawner sanctuaries” – small areas that are densely seeded with the shellfish to help ensure the successful rearing of the next generation when they spawn. An important part of a spawner sanctuary is demarcating it and acquiring a community understanding to leave that area untouched for a year.
Volunteer, Jeff, with Mike and Kate on seeding day
In conjunction with establishing Shelter Island as a new Back to the Bays Stewardship Site, Aquaculture Coordinator, Kate Rossi-Snook, and Hatchery Manager, Mike Patricio, seeded a small scallop spawner sanctuary in Coecles Harbor in September 2022 with approximately 70,000 juvenile scallops. The site was selected after conferring with local baymen, considering conditions and where the species was once found in abundance. Interestingly, the only location in Shelter Island waters with a significant haul this year is the area around where that sanctuary had been sited.
Can we prove that the scallops being harvested this year are the ones that we seeded? Well, no. But we have strong reason to believe that they are. The two embayments in which CCE Marine has employed this restoration method – Coecles Harbor and Shinnecock – have both experienced a rebound in the scallop harvest.
Today, as friends and families prepare to gather together for the Thanksgiving holiday – possibly with beloved bay scallops on the menu – we are filled with pride for our work and a renewed sense of hope that we will be able to restore our bays and help continue the cultural tradition of an annual scallop harvest.
With gratitude for the support we receive for our vital work,
Happy Thanksgiving from the Back to the Bays Team.