A “Scallop Project” launched in 1998 has ended with inconclusive evidence that seeding successfully replenishes the stock.

A Maine scientist says, however, that the future of scallop seeding nonetheless still has promise.

“I personally think there’s some good things the scallop spat fishery could do,” but more study is needed, Dan Schick, a Department of Marine Resources scientist, said recently. “We know we can hold them and grow them.”

The final report on “The Wild Scallop Stock Enhancement Project,” by Stonington fisherman Marsden Brewer, who is project coordinator, recommends the state allow a scallop spat fishery so those working to enhance the stock are compensated for their efforts.

The report indicates, however, that the state does not favor a spat fishery.

“Without a source of seed, we can’t go anywhere,” Brewer said Sunday. “What was successful is eight years ago we didn’t know how to catch spat.”

Now, it’s known that “we can catch them by the millions,” he noted. “The bottom line is we’ve found the source of seed. But until we can use it, we’ve stopped.”

The project was funded primarily by grants from the Northeast Consortium, which provided less than $200,000 during the research, DMR’s Linda Mercer said last week. The bulk of that funding was used for a scallop survey, Brewer said, noting many other organizations also contributed funding for materials.

The Northeast Consortium consists of four research institutions: University of New Hampshire, University of Maine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which work together to encourage and fund effective, equal partnerships among commercial fishermen, scientists, and other stakeholders to engage in cooperative research and monitoring projects in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank.

In the early 1980s, Maine scallop landings were at 4 million pounds, Mercer said. Today the figure is around 100,000 pounds.

“The really productive scallop beds are in southeast [New England],” she said.

Scallop spat fisheries in Japan, Canada and New Zealand have had longstanding success, Schick said, but the fishery is “heavily controlled” in those countries.

Schick said the next step here is to study what else can be done besides distributing spat to crabs. One of the biggest problems in Maine is that crabs love scallop spat and there’s an abundance of crabs. Scallop spat in larval stage “are food for about everything,” he said.

Maine also has red tide, which is a toxic proliferation of plantlike animals in the water at certain times of the year. Red tide is a concern in safely marketing whole scallops, Schick said, which would require another state testing program.

“The state is strapped,” he said. “We can’t take on another testing program.”

At the height of the project, more than 100 fishermen and environmental and school groups were involved, Brewer said. But the project cut into lobster fishing time, he said. Spat collecting and seeding did not provide income for participants.

The project, which extended from Saco to Jonesport, was “like a scavenger hunt,” Brewer said, referring to learning how to collect spat and seed it. “It’s come in pieces.”

The state needs to do more biological research, Schick said.

Maine has learned the best time for seeding is when the air and water temperature is 40 degrees Fahrenheit, which coincides with the period when crabs and lobsters become less active.

The upshot is that if spat is collected in early fall, it must be held for as long as 18 months, Schick said. “There are some logistic problems that are not easily overcome.

“I hope the two sides can get together and make this work,” he said of the fishermen and state.