TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING
Nantucket is blessed with an abundance of a lot of stuff. Look around you. We've got miles and miles of beaches, an amazing assortment of produce from local farms, and miles and miles of open space.

Nantucket is also, unfortunately, not so blessed with the abundance of other stuff. Think about the summer. We've got tens of thousands of people, lots of whom bring big cars that they drive very poorly, and blocks and blocks of expensive shops that are all closed during the winter.

Nantucket is a place where we've got a whole bunch of a lot of things, both good and bad. Wideopen spaces in which to frolic with the dogs - good thing. Hordes of people driving slowly in front of me and making me late for work - bad thing. But it all evens out in the end, more or less, and we end up taking the good with the bad. And, for those of us who live here, we feel like we end up with more positives than negatives when we boil it all down at the end of the day.

The thing about the whole equation of life on Nantucket, though, is that without the bad, we'd get a little over-exposed to the good. What I'm trying to say here is that we need the less-than-good things to keep us grounded and remind us all how lucky we are to have the good that we do have. In other words, it is, in fact, possible to have too much of a good thing, and we all need the occasional downers in our lives to keep it all on an even keel. And speaking of good things and too much thereof, you know what all this talk about abundance makes me think of?

The current plethora of readily-available bay scallops.

I don't care how much you have or how little you have. Any way you slice it, you can never, ever have enough segues.

Friends and neighbors, it's one of those bountiful years for the scallopers out there. I went out on opening day and got plenty of scallops in a couple of hours. Truth be told, the biggest obstacle I faced in terms of getting my limit was the heat. I was decked out for October weather, only to be greeted with a morning reminiscent of late July. And, while I'm on the subject, that brings up an important point. Hydrate yourselves, kids. Drink lots of water before you head out there. You'll thank me later.

But the main thing that people all over the island are experiencing is the fact that there are a lot of scallops. There's a whole bunch of them out there, from Pocomo to Madaket, so get out and get your bushel. Feel free to take advantage of all the abundance, but keep in mind that all of that abundance needs to be taken advantage of responsibly. When the scallops are this plentiful, it's almost like being in the middle of a huge school of hungry bluefish; you catch one, you're going to catch a boatload. And there are few better feelings in the world than pulling up a pushrake basket full of bay scallops. But just like with the fish, you've got to keep in mind a few things and be responsible.

Remember that scallops, in order to be legally harvested, must have a noticeable growth ring. If you don't know what a growth ring looks like, go talk to the folks at the Marine Department. They'll be happy to show you. And, just to squelch a little rumor I've heard at least once from a person of my acquaintance, this is not one of those rules that "nobody actually pays attention to." Mind you, I've heard the same person say that a bass was "close enough" to twenty-eight inches. But back to the growth ring issue, it's a pretty serious rule, kids, and it's in place for a reason. You take the scallops that haven't yet reproduced - and therefore don't have a growth ring - and you're killing off the species. So please pay attention to the rules, and please obey them. There's a big group of folks out here that makes its living off scallops, and if we kill off the species because we feel like nobody really pays attention to growth rings, we're stealing money from those folks and just shooting ourselves in the foot.

The other thing that I've already heard that really, really bugs me is a couple of people who have harvested more scallops than they know what to do with. And that includes actually shucking them. Remember that each scallop you keep is a scallop that you'll need to shuck. After that, you'll need to either eat it or give it to someone who will. Please don't take more than you can use. And please don't take more than you can shuck. Be realistic when you're out there, and don't fool yourself into thinking that you're ready and willing to spend a few hours shucking scallops if you're not going to carry through. And don't convince yourself that you'll be able to eat your own weight in bay scallops. Don't forget last year's abysmal harvest; we're only a single season of poor management away from going right back to that.

So scallop responsibly, and enjoy the bounty that only Nantucket can provide.

Tight lines. And full baskets. I