Vineyard commercial fishermen are coming out ahead in a price war over bay scallops.
Yesterday, Island commercial bay scallop fishermen received as much as $15 a pound, while their counterparts on Nantucket were paid only $11 a pound.
Consumers on both Islands yesterday were paying essentially the same price, around $18 a pound. In Orleans, the price was $29.99 a pound.
The Vineyard and Nantucket still have viable bay scallops fisheries, though Cape Cod does have pockets of success.
Three years ago, the Nantucket bay scallop harvest suddenly more than doubled in size, from around 15,000 bushels to more than 32,000. It was the year the industry ate its future.
The following season the harvest crashed. The total catch in 2005-06 was one-sixth as large — just 5,500 bushels. It was even worse last season, when fewer than 4,000 bushels were hauled up, the lowest tally since they began keeping records 30 years earlier.
By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL
Already this fall one Island angler has won a brand-new pickup truck for a huge striped bass he caught and the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby isn’t over yet.
That’s because he caught it in a different contest.
Morgan Taylor, 24, of Edgartown last week won the Angler of the Year Award in the annual Striper Cup, sponsored and run by the monthly publication On the Water. Mr. Taylor won the award for a 52-pound striped bass he caught from the shore way back in June.
On Wednesday morning, under a warm sun and blue sky, David and Karen Berube were out on Cape Pogue Pond, at it again.
Lagoon Pond has millions of baby bay scallops. On Tuesday afternoon, David Grunden, shellfish constable for Oak Bluffs, was out moving some of them around. There is a gold mine of baby bay scallops out there. While this doesn't help the fishermen of today, it may be a sign of a good year to follow.
Opening day for the bay scallop season is as much a part of the Vineyard culture as any holiday. On Saturday, dozens of smiling Tisbury residents turned out in Lagoon Pond to harvest bushels of the tasty sweet bivalves, and they had little trouble finding them.
Holders of family recreational permits harvested 528 bushels last weekend. Those bay scallops would be valued between $40,000 and $50,000 if they were sold on the retail market.