Spring survey is finding relatively low numbers of scallops in Peconic Bay
A spring scallop survey on the Peconic Bay indicates the coming winter season is likely to be another year of relatively low landings for fishermen, researchers say, although they remain hopeful a greater understanding of the problems plaguing the shellfish could help restore the species.
The first of 21 separate dive surveys in 57-degree water on the Peconic Bay Tuesday showed that while this year’s spawning stock survived the winter well, their numbers remain relatively low compared with pre-2019 highs, according to Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, which is leading the research. Fifteen surveys remain to be completed.
The 2023-24 Peconic Bay scallop harvest from November through the first of March was 6,057 pounds, while Moriches Bay produced about 4,831 pounds.
By comparison, Peconic Bay for the 2017-18 season produced 112,714 pounds, while the last year before the mass die off, 2018-2019, saw 110,802 pounds landed.
Bay surveys in areas that in good years had seen upward of 150 scallops per dive produced between six and 40 scallops at two sites on Tuesday.
The numbers have been perilously low since the 2019-20 die off, which researchers at Cornell and Stony Brook University have tied to a perfect storm of rising water temperatures, lower oxygen levels and the presence of a pathogen that preys on scallops.
Scientists this year are attacking the problem with new genetic studies that may help explain why the Peconic Bay scallop population appears more vulnerable to threats. Higher survival rates in scallops from Moriches and Great South bays, similar to those from Martha’s Vineyard in a Cornell field study last year, indicate that the Peconic population may lack the genetic diversity to survive the challenging new conditions, said Harrison Tobi, shellfish and aquaculture specialist for Cornell.
Peconic Bay scallops have observed survival rates of between 15% and 30%, Tobi said, while those from Martha's Vineyard surveyed in the Peconic had a 70% to 80% survival rate. Genetic research by Stony Brook University indicates that Moriches and Great South Bay scallops are genetically more similar to Martha’s Vineyard scallops.
“We’re actually seeing a decrease in genetic diversity” in the Peconic Bay population, Tobi said. “It’s called a genetic bottleneck, and as you lose that diversity, you lose your ability to potentially be able to be tolerant toward stress. So we think that these other strains [from Moriches and Martha’s Vineyard] have tolerance toward stress of the parasite, which is compounded by the stress of elevated water temperatures and the lower dissolved oxygen.”
As Newsday reported in November, scientists have already begun working to introduce the Moriches strain into the Peconic population.
It’s a “really hopeful sign that if we start using the Moriches scallops in our restoration and spawner sanctuary, the genetics or that genotype that they might possess for tolerance might allow them to survive those infections over the summer months, and therefore survive till harvest, and therefore bring back the fishery,” Tobi said. “That’s what makes me hopeful.” The diversity from seed scallops would be passed along to scallops bred in the wild.
Since a Cornell program to monitor and restock scallop Peconic Bay scallops began in 2005, researchers have taken to the water in diving gear to survey along the same lines of bay bottom to determine just how healthy the population is.
Overall, said Tobi, scallops in the Peconic are still “not doing very well,” with paltry numbers compared with the pre-die-off figures. But he said the fact that numbers remained relatively stable from fall surveys is cause for some optimism.
He also noted that the teams have found scallops at every site surveyed thus far, in some cases hundreds, compared with past years where many sites showed no scallops at all. Hallock Bay, he said, had been a “dead zone for a very long time,” with no scallops for the past two years. This year, Tobi found “a couple.”
In addition, “We’re seeing spawning events every summer, so scallops are surviving as a species,” he said. “The issue is that they are not surviving until harvest season.”
At a scallop sanctuary in the waters around Orient, Cornell staffers were working on a barge Tuesday to transfer hundreds of thousands of young scallops — this’s spawner stock — into cages free of the winter algae growth. By summer, up to 1 million scallops are expected to be in the sanctuary, some to breed this year, some for next. They spawn wild scallops while in the sanctuary and provide seed stock to supplement the Peconic Bay population. From 250,000 to 500,000 spawn are put into the waters of the bay each year, Tobi said.
Scallops live to around two years old and can spawn from one to three times during that short life span. Those that are harvested between the November and March season are the largest with the shortest life span remaining, so limiting the harvest wouldn’t impact the survival rate.
Work on stock enhancement has been done before, notably with clams and oysters in the Chesapeake Bay, Tobi said.
Scallops from Moriches spawned in the lab in the late fall and spring likely won’t spawn themselves until 2025 and their offspring won’t spawn until 2026, so there’s a long timeline for restoration — from three to five years, Tobi said.
A spring scallop survey on the Peconic Bay indicates the coming winter season is likely to be another year of relatively low landings for fishermen, researchers say, although they remain hopeful a greater understanding of the problems plaguing the shellfish could help restore the species.
The first of 21 separate dive surveys in 57-degree water on the Peconic Bay Tuesday showed that while this year’s spawning stock survived the winter well, their numbers remain relatively low compared with pre-2019 highs, according to Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, which is leading the research. Fifteen surveys remain to be completed.
The 2023-24 Peconic Bay scallop harvest from November through the first of March was 6,057 pounds, while Moriches Bay produced about 4,831 pounds.
By comparison, Peconic Bay for the 2017-18 season produced 112,714 pounds, while the last year before the mass die off, 2018-2019, saw 110,802 pounds landed.
WHAT TO KNOW
- A spring scallop survey on the Peconic Bay indicates the coming winter season is likely to be another year of relatively low landings for fishermen, researchers say.
- The first of 21 separate dive surveys showed that while this year’s spawning stock survived the winter well, their numbers remain relatively low compared with pre-2019 highs.
- The 2023-24 Peconic Bay scallop harvest from November through the first of March was 6,057 pounds, while Moriches Bay produced about 4,831 pounds.
Bay surveys in areas that in good years had seen upward of 150 scallops per dive produced between six and 40 scallops at two sites on Tuesday.
The numbers have been perilously low since the 2019-20 die off, which researchers at Cornell and Stony Brook University have tied to a perfect storm of rising water temperatures, lower oxygen levels and the presence of a pathogen that preys on scallops.
Scientists this year are attacking the problem with new genetic studies that may help explain why the Peconic Bay scallop population appears more vulnerable to threats. Higher survival rates in scallops from Moriches and Great South bays, similar to those from Martha’s Vineyard in a Cornell field study last year, indicate that the Peconic population may lack the genetic diversity to survive the challenging new conditions, said Harrison Tobi, shellfish and aquaculture specialist for Cornell.
Peconic Bay scallops have observed survival rates of between 15% and 30%, Tobi said, while those from Martha's Vineyard surveyed in the Peconic had a 70% to 80% survival rate. Genetic research by Stony Brook University indicates that Moriches and Great South Bay scallops are genetically more similar to Martha’s Vineyard scallops.
“We’re actually seeing a decrease in genetic diversity” in the Peconic Bay population, Tobi said. “It’s called a genetic bottleneck, and as you lose that diversity, you lose your ability to potentially be able to be tolerant toward stress. So we think that these other strains [from Moriches and Martha’s Vineyard] have tolerance toward stress of the parasite, which is compounded by the stress of elevated water temperatures and the lower dissolved oxygen.”
As Newsday reported in November, scientists have already begun working to introduce the Moriches strain into the Peconic population.
It’s a “really hopeful sign that if we start using the Moriches scallops in our restoration and spawner sanctuary, the genetics or that genotype that they might possess for tolerance might allow them to survive those infections over the summer months, and therefore survive till harvest, and therefore bring back the fishery,” Tobi said. “That’s what makes me hopeful.” The diversity from seed scallops would be passed along to scallops bred in the wild.
Since a Cornell program to monitor and restock scallop Peconic Bay scallops began in 2005, researchers have taken to the water in diving gear to survey along the same lines of bay bottom to determine just how healthy the population is.
Overall, said Tobi, scallops in the Peconic are still “not doing very well,” with paltry numbers compared with the pre-die-off figures. But he said the fact that numbers remained relatively stable from fall surveys is cause for some optimism.
He also noted that the teams have found scallops at every site surveyed thus far, in some cases hundreds, compared with past years where many sites showed no scallops at all. Hallock Bay, he said, had been a “dead zone for a very long time,” with no scallops for the past two years. This year, Tobi found “a couple.”
In addition, “We’re seeing spawning events every summer, so scallops are surviving as a species,” he said. “The issue is that they are not surviving until harvest season.”
At a scallop sanctuary in the waters around Orient, Cornell staffers were working on a barge Tuesday to transfer hundreds of thousands of young scallops — this’s spawner stock — into cages free of the winter algae growth. By summer, up to 1 million scallops are expected to be in the sanctuary, some to breed this year, some for next. They spawn wild scallops while in the sanctuary and provide seed stock to supplement the Peconic Bay population. From 250,000 to 500,000 spawn are put into the waters of the bay each year, Tobi said.
Scallops live to around two years old and can spawn from one to three times during that short life span. Those that are harvested between the November and March season are the largest with the shortest life span remaining, so limiting the harvest wouldn’t impact the survival rate.
Work on stock enhancement has been done before, notably with clams and oysters in the Chesapeake Bay, Tobi said.
Scallops from Moriches spawned in the lab in the late fall and spring likely won’t spawn themselves until 2025 and their offspring won’t spawn until 2026, so there’s a long timeline for restoration — from three to five years, Tobi said.
Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.
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