It will be another disappointing bay scallop harvest in East Hampton Town waters, the town’s shellfish hatchery director and others predict, but the town trustees nonetheless sought to clarify the opening date when they met on Friday, one year after the town board amended the code to set the opening and closing dates of town waters to align with those of the trustees.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation sets the opening of scallop season in state waters as the first Monday in November. This year, that date is Nov. 3. The trustees typically wait until the following Sunday to open their waters, both to allow additional time for scallops to spawn and to allow recreational harvesters the opportunity to dig for scallops. Trustee waters will open to scalloping on Nov. 9. The closing date is March 31.
Until it was amended last year, the town code stipulated that if no resolution is passed for the upcoming season, town waters open on the third Monday of October. The town board has authority to manage the taking of shellfish in Montauk, where the trustees do not have jurisdiction. Management of the harvesting of shellfish in other town waters is vested in the trustees.
“The office has gotten some inquiries about the scallop season,” John Aldred told his colleagues on Friday. Last year, he said, “there was some confusion with coordinating the town opening that we set with the opening of Lake Montauk, which is the responsibility of the town board to set.”
Now, he said, “the code language says that the town scallop season in all town waters will be set a week after the state opening date. There’s no need for us to do any more resolutions because it’s in the code, but people still are a little confused because of what’s gone on the last few years.”
Peconic Bay scallops have experienced a die-off every year since 2019, a combination of stressors — high water temperatures, low dissolved oxygen, and a virulent parasite — believed to be responsible.
