BOSTON – The scallop population from Virginia to the Canadian border is twice what the government estimated, according to a new survey which, if accepted by regulators, could expand fishing for the lucrative shellfish.

Researchers found an estimated 550 million pounds of scallops after a painstaking three-month survey of 16,000 square nautical miles.

The project, led by scientists at the School for Marine Science and Technology at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, aimed to bring new certainty to the scallop regulation, which fishermen charge involves too much guesswork.

More than 1,400 hours of videotape were filmed to determine the number, size and density of the scallops in a given area, researchers said.

Jim Kendall, a longtime New Bedford scalloper and industry consultant, said more information means more fairness.

“In this case here, instead of a picture being worth a thousand words, it’s going to be worth a million,” Kendall said. “Now we can look and see what’s there rather than suppose what we think might be there.”

John Boreman, acting science director at the federal National Marine Science Center, said the video count results are intriguing, but its methods need analysis. Boreman said he plans to meet with UMass-Dartmouth scientists this spring.

The research, released last month, was conducted between late May and August in nine five-day trips. Scientists used a half-ton, pyramid-shaped device with a camera in the middle to film 851 sites in the mid-Atlantic and 996 on Georges Bank.

It worked out to about one sample for every nine square nautical miles, compared to one per 100 square miles in current ocean floor sampling, said the study’s lead researcher, Kevin Stokesbury, a UMass marine biologist.

The pictures allowed scientists using digital enhancement to physically count the scallops in each area simply by looking at the images. The government’s scallop count is based in part on what they pull up in dredges in sample areas. Stokesbury said dredging likely misses scallops, and that could lead to undercounting, though Boreman said dredging may also dig up scallops the camera can’t see.

The scallop industry gave about $58,000 to the study and donated boats, food and fuel, but Stokesbury said industry support didn’t influence his findings. He noted the science must still pass rigorous review by the fisheries service to be accepted.

The recent rebound of the scallop industry is a welcome success story for federal regulators, who’ve been pounded by the fishing industry and courts for their management of other beleaguered sea stocks. The rebound began in 1999, after the fisheries service reopened closed scalloping grounds

Last year, scallops pulled in $202 million in revenue in the Northeast, including about $97 million in New Bedford, the highest revenue-producing port in the United States in 2002.