Maine Department of Marine Resources begins first bay closures for scallop fishing

MAINE PUBLIC • January 17, 2025

The Maine Department of Marine Resources will close several bays to scallop fishing this weekend, the first round of closures in the season this year. Scallop fishing will be halted this Sunday in Cobscook Bay along with Whiting and Denny's Bay, Upper Machias and Little Machias Bays and Upper Western Bay. Jeff Nichols, director of communications, said the process is a routine tool used to manage scallop populations. "Based on the survey work that we've done, we've made a determination that continued fishing in those efforts would deplete the resource to a point where it could not effectively recover," he said.