BARNEGAT LIGHT, N.J. – Just five years after the commercial scallop-fishing industry in New Jersey appeared near bankruptcy due to overfishing and other problems, it continues to make a stunning economic comeback.

In 1998, a time when government regulations allowed fishing boats to spend hundreds of days at sea, the industry only brought in $9.8 million worth of scallops to the docks.

However, that amount had grown to $33.3 million in 2002, a boost many say is due to measures initially introduced in the 1980s that reduced both the amount of time boats could spend at sea and the areas where scallop fishing was permitted.

That allowed the scallop population to rebound and resulted in larger scallops and larger harvests.

Those restrictions, though, had been met with fierce criticism when they were first introduced.

“When I heard they were going to reduce the number of days we could fish, I told them they better take my boat,” Jimmy Gutowski, a former boat captain, told The Press of Atlantic City. “But it worked.”