The commercial bay scallop season is open in all towns save Aquinnah, and as hardy shellfishermen don their orange and yellow foul weather gear, perhaps hoping for a small hedge against hard economic times, the early reports on the season are mixed.

Edgartown is having an average to healthy year, but the scallops coming out of Cape Pogue are small. Chilmark expects to have a short season this year. Sengekontacket remains mostly the steady domain of family fishermen (no dragging is allowed there). And the Lagoon Pond is hot.

Commercial season opened Monday in Lagoon Pond for Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven, and fishermen were out in large numbers. The Tisbury side of the Lagoon is full of scallops with the Oak Bluffs side running a fair second.

Tisbury shellfish constable Danielle Ewart said 22 commercial fishermen have been out daily since Monday. “They are cutting well, about eight pounds per bushel,” she said. She said 350 bushels of scallops had been taken from the Lagoon as of Wednesday by family and commercial fishermen. Another 125 bushels were taken from outside the pond in the harbor.

“I seem to remember we landed 1,000 bushels a year ago,” Ms. Ewart said. “That was for the whole year.”

Retail prices vary from market to market but are running close to $18 a pound. Shellfishermen are being paid between $11 and $13 a pound.

Oak Bluffs shellfish constable David Grunden confirmed the reports of the Lagoon as the land of plenty this year. “The fishermen are happy. So far so good,” he said.

Mr. Grunden said commercial shellfishermen were harvesting their three-bushel limits in about an hour and a half of pulling their drags and culling their catch. “I see it as a little bit better than last year,” he said.

The commercial season in Cape Pogue Pond opened two weeks ago. Edgartown shellfish constable Paul Bagnall said 36 fishermen got their daily limit of three ten-gallon baskets daily.

But he said the Cape Pogue scallops are on the small side this year, which he attributes to overcrowding.

The commercial season opened in Chilmark on Tuesday. Shellfish constable Isaiah Scheffer said there were 10 fishermen out on the pond. “The guys are getting their limit in three hours,” Mr. Scheffer said. The Chilmark limit is two bushels a day. “It will be a short season. It is not as good as last year. Last year was good and it hasn’t been like that in a while,” Mr. Scheffer said.

Due to a heavy set of juvenile bay scallops, Quitsa Pond is closed to scalloping pond until Dec. 1.

In Aquinnah the selectman have not set a date yet for the opening of the commercial season.

Louis S. Larsen of the Net Result fish market in Vineyard Haven said he was shipping Vineyard scallops to the Cape, where they are having a poor year in Chatham. He said Long Island markets are expected to open next week. The state of the bay scallop fishery there will have an impact on the market price.

The commercial season opened on Nantucket this week, where they are reportedly have a decent season. “It is a lot better than last year. But we don’t know how long it will last,” said harbor manager Dave Fronzuto.

Nantucket fishermen were paid $11 a pound on opening day.

Mr. Bagnall said when Cape Pogue Pond first opened, fishermen were paid $14 per pound for shucked scallops. The price fell a bit this week.

The strong northeaster that blew through the Vineyard on Saturday washed many bushels of scallops up onto east and north-facing beaches, and shellfish departments were kept busy relaying the seed and adults into deeper water.

In Edgartown, Mr. Bagnall said his staff and volunteers moved 40 to 50 bushels of seed that washed up on the beach at Cape Pogue Pond. Thousands of scallops also washed up on Lighthouse Beach, where shellfishermen hauled them into boxes and moved them to Sengekontacket Pond. “Over 65 bushels of bay scallops were recovered and transported,” said Mr. Bagnall said.

Mr. Grunden said his staff and volunteers moved many bushels of bay scallops that washed up on Sandy Point near the Sailing Camp Park at Lagoon Pond.

On Nantucket, Mr. Fronzuto said it was the same story, with bushels of juvenile scallops washing up on the beaches at the head of the harbor in the storm. “We got a lot of support from fishermen, volunteers, and from the department. It got everybody’s attention,” the Nantucket biologist said.