Winds reveal more scallops; price jumps up to $15
BY PETER B. BRACE
Last week's high winds did more than panic the Steamship Authority into canceling many of its vehicle and fast ferry trips.

Although four days of wind last week loosened more bushels of scallops and cleared out a lot the eelgrass, scallopers and shellfish wardens don't expect a bounty of mollusks to be pulled from the harbors through the end of the season on March 31. Unloading his catch in early November 2005 is scalloper Martin Mack, above.

It blew otherwise hidden caches of bay scallops out into more accessible parts of the harbors, and washed mats of eelgrass off pockets of scallops that island fishermen had not been able to reach, dispelling, for the moment, talk of this season being even worse than last season's horrible take of 5,500 bushels.

It also may have given hope to fish buyers that the season would not come down to just one or two months. Coincidentally, the boat price - what island fish stores pay scallopers per pound for their shucked catch - rose to $15 earlier this week. That news did not, however, brighten scalloper Harvey Lynch's day yesterday.

Fishing alone under overcast skies against northeast winds blowing 15-20 mph, Lynch did not do so well.

"I've had bad luck with my engine and it's my first year on my own and it's really tough," said Lynch. "I fished for many years before with other people - this is probably the toughest year I've ever seen - and my first year by myself."

Marine Superintendent Dave Fronzuto, who has been accused of, as he put it, preaching doom and gloom about this commercial scallop season would probably have loved to have had Lynch with him at Stop & Shop the other day when somebody questioned his negativity about the season to back up his rationale that myriad variables determine the scallop harvest's success or failure.

"There's an awful lot of factors on who's doing what to whom out here and I'm not trying to preach doom and gloom, I'm just trying to get the facts as to how

complicated this fishery really is," said Fronzuto.

On Monday, Fronzuto counted 37 boats dredging for scallops, 32 in Nantucket and five in Madaket, and estimated around 3,300 bushels had been harvested to date. Though a drop-off in the number of scallopers fishing the harbors is expected after the first month of the season, which began on Nov. 1, Fronzuto seemed to be indicating that it would be tougher to call this year.

"Interestingly enough after that wind, there were several guys that got their limits and there were several guys who pulled their boats in frustration, so I can't,...I can't read it," said Fronzuto. "It's several very aggressive fishermen in by nine o'clock and pulling their boats...three of them specifically."

As encouraging as 37 boats still fishing on Monday may be, Fronzuto said that even more revealing would be how many boats were out yesterday after the fishermen came in the night before and compared notes on who got what where and how.

"The wind, the rest after the holiday...several boats came in in the afternoon with limits and a few double limits just for good measure," remarked Fronzuto. "It's odd that the philosophy if you will, or the premise that fishing is always better after a blow held true for the guys that stuck with it."

Kenny Wiggin is one of those who will ride out the season for as long as he can, not out of necessity, but because it is therapeutic and good for his 63-year-old body to be out moving around. Wiggin works for the Nantucket Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals on weekends and saves up his vacation time so he can scallop five days a week, but even this casual scalloper is finding it tough to do what he loves.

"It's not a great year," said Wiggin. "Last year was my first year doing it commercially. I did it two days a week last year and I say it's all my fault that the season went bad last year, so now this year, it's happening again, so it must really be my fault.

"Actually, the scallops are nicer this year as far as I'm concerned. I'm finding them easier to identify, but they're not plentiful, you gotta really work for them, so it's hard work."

And it is likely to get harder as the supply thins and the weather gets colder and windier. Fronzuto said he would actually like to see the water get colder than the 48 degrees Fahrenheit it is now to give the harbor bottoms a rest.

"I think you're going to see a drop off in December, I just think you are," he said. "I just think that this goodday bad-day thing is going to end up overtaking the fishery in the sense that the bad days are going to outweigh the good days and they're just not going to go anymore, and, historically, the weather's going to continue to play a bigger factor."

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