The Menemsha waterfront traditionally begins to stir at this time of year. Fishermen mend their gear, sturdy work boats are back in the slips, ready for the early-season haul. With the pandemic, all that has changed.
On Thursday, officials from the state Division of Marine Fisheries division traveled to the Vineyard to hold a public hearing and announced that the regulations to the recreational fisheries were essentially set in stone.
The quiet demise of the tuna industry was in evidence last week when the 278-metric ton seasonal quota was reached early. Market prices were reported to have plummeted to a record-breaking low.
There are about 700 permits of various classifications issued by the federal government to fish for sea scallops on the East Coast. Sam Hopkins of West Tisbury has one of them.
The 83-foot sea-scalloper Stanley M. Fisher, Capt. George H. Fisher of Oak Bluffs, came up with perhaps the biggest catch of this or any other season last Thursday night, the Navy’s nuclear powered submarine, the U.S.S. Nautilus.
It’s November, and that means bay scallop season has arrived on the Vineyard. But by most accounts, it will be an average to poor year for scalloping, both up Island and down.
