Scallops

SCALLOPS

Pecten novaezelandiae

DESCRIPTION:

Perhaps the most sought after of all shellfish, scallops are fantastic eating.  They are a classic bi-valve (two shells) with a flat valve and a concave valve.  They have a strong adductor muscle (the white bit) that they use to open and close their shells.  By closing their shells they jet out a stream of water that allows them to swim.  The roe (the red bit) and the muscle are the parts most commonly eaten. 

Scallops become fertile at about one year old when they reach about 60mm across.

MoF REGULATIONS:

There are different regulations for different areas as follows:

AUCKLAND & KERMADEC REGION (East Cape to Taranaki  and North)

Season:                               1 September - 31 March 

Size:                                     100mm

Bag Limit:                             20

CENTRAL REGION (East Cape to Taranaki and Cook Straight)

Season:                                15 July - 14 February

Size:                                      100mm

Bag Limit:                             20

CHALLENGER REGION (Marlborough Sounds - West Coast)

Season:                                 15 July - 14 February

Size:                                      90mm

Bag limit:                                50

SOUTHLAND FMA (Haast - Invercargill, Stewart Island)

Season:                                  1 October - 15 March

Size:                                       100

Bag Limit:                              10

SOUTH-EAST FMA (Blenheim - Invercargill)

Season:                                   15 July - 13 February

Size:                                        100

Bag limit:                                 20

Scallops are measured along the widest part.

Other:

*  Scallops must be landed in a measurable state BUT they may be shucked at sea (within daily bag limits) for consumption onboard.

*  These limits are per diver, per day but if diving from a boat up to  two extra quotas may be taken for safety/boat people.

FEEDING HABITS & HABITAT

Like all bi-valves, scallops are filter feeders meaning that they strain the water to extract the plankton they live on.  Scallops live on sandy-muddy bottoms in open water and harbours down to 50m where they sit on or just below the sand with their shells cracked slightly open feeding.

Scallops start life as a free-swimming embryo and after about 48 hours begin to grow a shell. After four-five weeks the scallop attatches itself to a rock or branch on the bottom where it spends the rest of its juvenile life.  Once it has grown a few millimeters it retracts its anchor line and drops to the bottom to begin adult life.  From the time it anchors itself to the bottom till the end of its life the scallop will have moved very little making scallop beds very vulnerable to over fishing (Scallops move so little in fact that morphological differences are apparent between the fish in neighboring beds).  Dredging for scallops is doubly damaging to a bed because not only is it scooping up this years catch, by breaking the structures that juveniles are attatched to it is killing next years harvest as well.

HUNTING TECHNIQUES:

Scallops are very easy to collect as while they can swim, they can't swim far or fast.  The hardest bit is finding them and you really need local knowledge to find the beds.  They are usually on a relatively flat patch of sand or mud exposed to a good current.  Harbours, or near river mouths are favorites as there are plenty of nutrients in the water.  When you do come across a bed, the fish are generally in a band along a certain depth.  When you start finding fish it is best to follow the bottom contour to stay at the same depth rather than swimming deeper or shallower.  Be aware that storms can move beds and it is not uncommon to find scallops while snapper snooping that have been washed into the reef.  Sometimes you don't even have to get your feet wet as they have been washed up at low tide.

When diving on popular beds a float and flag are an absolute necessity as there will be boats towing dredges.  Waist catch bags are the best method of storing your catch as it means you have both hands free.  If you're going to catch a lot of scallops (eg an extra 20 or 40 for boat men) this can create to much weight to carry around on your body and you should utilize a scalloping rig.

A reliable measure is also important.  There are a lot of different measures available but the best for scallops seems to be just a bit of 100mm down pipe cut into a ring.