ASSOCIATED PRESS • June 28, 2022
America’s scallop fishing industry will continue to decline in catch into next year due to a decrease in the availability of the oft-pricy shellfish off the East Coast, federal regulators say. U.S. scallop fishers harvested more than 60 million pounds of scallops in 2019, but the catch has declined since, and fishers were projected to harvest about 40 million pounds of scallops in the 2021 fishing year. That number is projected to fall to 34 million pounds in the 2022 fishing year. In Maine, value spiked by more than 50 percent to a record of $15.65 per pound last year. However, the state’s catch also declined about a fifth in that time, to about 533,000 pounds.