Shorter, more limited scallop season opens

PORTLAND – Maine’s scallop draggers and divers face a shortened season and new restrictions as the scallop season gets under way.

The season in state waters runs Jan. 1-4 and again Feb. 25-March 31. That’s a total of 70 days, a cutback of nearly 50 percent from last year. Fishermen also will have a daily catch limit of 200 pounds in state waters.

Regulators said the new rules are needed to give the ailing resource a chance to recover.

Maine fishermen last year harvested about 1.3 million pounds of scallops. In the late 1980s and early ’90s, the catch routinely exceeded 10 million pounds.