Common Name	Sea Scallop	Conservation Notes
Scientific Name	Placopecten magellanicus	Sustainability Information
Market Names	Scallop	Buying Tips
Sushi Name	Hotate	Health/Nutrition

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Sea Scallops Market Alert - updated February 2012

If you’re in the sea scallop business, the good times just keep getting better and better. If you’re a buyer further down the distribution line, on the other hand, selling scallops is becoming increasingly problematic.

For the past 10 years, since the National Marine Fisheries started using rotating area closures to manage the fishery, the East Coast scallop fleet has been landing close to 60 million pounds of scallop meats a year, a level that is consistently at or near record historical highs.  Over that same period, however, the average price paid to the boats has doubled from about $4/lb. to about $8/lb.

One reason for the ballooning price of scallops is the steady growth of an export market, primarily to countries in the European Union. Over the past 10 years, U.S. exports of sea scallop meats have more than doubled from about 13 million pounds a year to almost 30 million pounds. Now that surging seafood demand in China has made that country a growing market for U.S. sea scallops, prices could head even higher.

On the import side, U.S. imports of sea scallops have declined about 50 percent over the past decade, another reason for the upward swing in prices. Supplies of sea scallops from Canada and Japan, the two main sources of sea scallops, have fallen from about 25 million pounds of meats to about 10 million pounds last year.

If you’re a buyer, on the other hand, the record high prices surely haven’t made this marvelous mollusc easy to sell. Over the past two years, the price of 20-30 count dry domestic scallops has risen from $8/lb. to $12/lb. “You’re starting to see some restaurants take scallops off their menus,” says one West Coast distributor. “That could, hopefully, push prices down eventually. In the meantime, though, these prices are killing sales.”

Conservation Notes

Life History/Inherent Vulnerability: Sea scallops grow quickly and mature young, which makes them particularly resistant to fishing pressure.

Wild Harvest

Status of Stocks/Abundance: U.S. sea scallops were overfished in the past, causing extensive areas to be closed in the 1990s. Since then, some of the areas have been reopened to controlled fishing. American sea scallop stocks have recovered following years of strict conservation measures, according to the Environmental Defense Fund.

Fishing Impacts on Habitat: Most sea scallops fished in the U.S. are collected from the sandy or cobbled ocean floor with dredges, trawls, or rakes. Dredging for sea scallops often levels structural marine habitat, according to the Seafood Choices Alliance. Some sea scallop habitats in the U.S. have been closed to dredging for several years, which is helping them recover. Gear modifications that reduce the impact of dredging on the seafloor have been discussed, but have not been developed, according to the Blue Ocean Institute. A small number of sea scallops come from Mexico and Peru, where divers collect them by hand, a method that results in little habitat impact, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Bycatch, Nature and Extent: The dredges commonly used to harvest scallops along America’s Atlantic coast can result in the bycatch of sea turtles and finfish such as yellowtail flounder, skates, and monkfish, according to the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service. Bycatch can also include undersized scallops as well as bottom-dwelling species such as cod and monkfish. In the mid-Atlantic region, endangered sea turtles have been caught in scallop gear. A gear modification involving rock chains may reduce sea turtle interactions but more data is still needed to be sure, according to the Blue Ocean Institute. In New England, dredges are required to have a minimum ring size and minimum twine top mesh size to reduce the amount of groundfish and juvenile scallop bycatch.

Management Effectiveness: The sea scallop fishery in the U.S. now has maximum fishing days per year, rotating area closures to help stocks regenerate, and has regulated equipment to encourage sea scallop abundance, according to the Seafood Choices Alliance. The risk to sea turtles is being addressed through restrictions on the number of fishing trips, according to the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service. The NMFS also reported that NOAA Fisheries Service is collaborating with the fishing industry on the testing a new design of scallop dredges, including the feasibility of turtle extruder devices for scallop trawls. In Peru, where sea scallops are hand-collected by divers, there are few regulations and little enforcement to protect the stocks, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
 

Farmed

Inherent Operational Risks/Risk of Pollution and Habitat Impacts: The majority of sea scallops available in the United States are wild-caught but a small percent comes from farmers in Japan and China. Sea scallops are also farmed in Peru and Chile. In Japan, sea scallops are frequently grown in lantern nets suspended from buoys, which has a minimal impact on the environment, according to the Environmental Defense Fund. However, sea scallops farmed using vacuum dredging from the seafloor can cause environmental damage, killing or injuring bottom-dwelling organisms, according to the Seafood Choices Alliance. Scallop farms rarely use any fertilizers, antibiotics or chemicals that could negatively impact the local ecosystem, reports the Monterey Bay Aquarium

 
Use of Marine Resources/Feed: Scallops are filter feeders that don’t need any fishmeal or fish oil-based feed because they survive on tiny particles drawn from seawater. Sea scallops actually help improve water quality and clarity, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. 

Risk to Wild Stocks: Since scallop spawn are transplanted to sites that are usually better than the areas where they’d naturally settle, the capture of wild scallop spat for aquaculture doesn’t appear to harm natural sea scallop populations, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. However, the aquarium did report that there is concern about wild spat collection in China because of a generally low abundance of wild scallops. There is little information to suggest that cultured sea scallop escapes negatively affect wild stocks in China and Japan, according to the aquarium’s 2006 report.

Management Effectiveness: The U.S. and Canada have strict rules for aquaculture, but China has been struggling with water quality and pollution problems in its coastal environment, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Shellfish farmers there have little control over industrial and agricultural pollution, so it’s unusual for there to be management processes in place to deal with the problem. There is little information available about best management practices for sea scallop farming operations in Asia, according to the aquarium. 

Ecological Effects: The majority of farmed scallops are raised “off-bottom,” a method where they are harvested by hand, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Some scallops are raised “on-bottom” in culture plots, meaning they are removed using a heavy net dredge that can harm ecosystems and negatively impact marine life, causing diversity to decline, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. 

Sustainability Information

	Seafood Watch	SeaChoice	FishWise	Blue Ocean Institute	New England Aquarium	Marine Stewardship Council
Worldwide Farmed Cultured	Best Choice	Best Choice	Best Choice
Worldwide Farmed Dredged	Good Alternative	Some Concerns	Good Alternative
U.S. Trawl	Good Alternative	Some Concerns	Good Alternative	Yellow	B List
U.S. Dredge	Good Alternative	Some Concerns	Good Alternative	Yellow	B List
Canada Trawl		Avoid		Yellow
Canada Dredge		Avoid		Yellow		Certified*

Rating Explanation

Seafood Watch rates farmed sea scallops from cultured harvest methods as "Best Choice (green)" and from dredge harvest as "Good Alternative (yellow)." Seafood Watch's assessment of wild sea scallops is only for the U.S. fisheries and includes all gear types under one assessment. Sea Choice's assessment of sea scallops looks at the U.S. fisheries and Canadian fisheries separately and rates the Canadian fisheries as "avoid" because of concerns over significant and poorly documented bycatch and habitat impacts. Blue Ocean Institute's ratings include all wild sea scallop fisheries under one assessment and rates the whole as "yellow." *The Eastern Canada offshore scallop fishery have been certified as sustainable to the Marine Stewardship Council in scallop fishing areas 10, 11, 12, 25, 26, and 27 and comprises of 12 vessels using dredge gear, locally referred to as the "New Bedford rake."

Buying Tips

• Fresh product is usually sold in one gallon or half-gallon tubs. Some diver-caught scallops are sold live in the shell
• Frozen product is usually the whole meat sold as block frozen or individually quick frozen (IQF) or on the half-shell with attached roe
• Scallop meats are sold by count per pound, with a premium being paid for larger size meats (lower count per pound)
• Although very small quantities of U.S. scallops are harvested inshore by divers, the term “diver” scallops refers to a dry scallop that has not been treated by sodium tripolyphosphate. The phosphates allow the scallop to hold more water, sometimes 20% more. Most scallops are treated using phosphates and even dry scallops are often washed in tripolyphosphate
• The trick to sea scallops is to not pay $10/lb. for water. Dry scallops will feel sticky whereas a soaked scallop will feel soapy or slick
• The worst time to buy scallops is after they have spawned because the adductor muscle is soft and discolored and sheds moisture easily
• The best time to buy scallops is in the late summer when prices are low and the quality has improved following the spring spawn

Nutrition and Health

*Scallops harvested at the wrong time can contain toxic algae which causes Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP).

Acknowledgements

• Seafood Watch by Monterey Bay Aquarium
• Blue Ocean Institute
• SeaChoice
• Seafood Choices Alliance
• Environmental Defense Fund
• NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service