Title: Cape Cod Bay Scallops - Information
Categories: Info Seafood
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Cape Cod Bay scallops are found in local inlets and bays off Cape Cod, in waters ranging from 4 to 40 feet deep. When mature enough to go to market, their fluted shells will be nearly 3 inches round. Several vary-colored rings arc through the middle of the shells. These are growth rings. The scallop grows in spurts, marking its lifespan in monthly ripples, much as trees do on an annual basis.

What part is edible? Many Europeans eat the entire scallop. But here, on the other side of the Atlantic, the waste (called "gurry") is thrown to the cats and is said to make their ears fall off. The edible part of a bay scallop is the tiny muscle which holds the shells together. Called an "eye", it weighs in at 1/6th to total scallop's weight. So a bushel of scallops yields only 6 to 8 pounds of meat. That's the reason the prices make you gulp - but make sure you nibble when you get to the eating.

The entire Eastern seaboard plays host to some type of bay scallop. Southerners are called "calicos" and don't possess the sweet briny bite of the northerners. Most Cape Cod towns have scallop beds, but because of the mollusk's mobility (they swim by opening and closing their shells with a snap) they cross town lines without conscience. Where they'll be bedded when the season opens is anybody's guess. Chatham currently reigns as the most popular Cape scalloping town. Everything that will float is usually transformed into a scallop boat before Chatham's scallop season opens on November 1st. Long before sunup on opening day, hundreds of skiffs, scows, and runabouts line the shores. At the first crack of dawn, the hopeful shellfishermen push off from the sands in a reverse beachhead. The annual gold rush is on.

October through March is traditionally scallop season. Some towns hold back on their season until November, if authorities (usually not shellfishermen) feel the scallops need more growth. While the scallop can be gathered until March, the beds fish out long before that date if it's a bad year. Adult scallops spawn at the end of summer, relying on the temperature and salinity of the water for their cue. The eggs freefloat for a few days and then sink to the bottom where they attach themselves to eelgrass or old shells. Here they quickly resemble their parents, even though barely ¬-inch long. In a few weeks they will have grown large enough to control their own travels, so they detach themselves from their first home and follow the plankton upon which they feed. This is next year's scallop crop, for their natural lifespan is between 18 to 24 months.

Family permit holders gather scallops with a large rake in shallow waters and work from a boat in deep water by using a net on a long pole to scoop them from the bottom. Commercial scallopers drag for the shellfish with a rig that has a chain bottom topped with a net. This heavy work is done by hand with one or two people per boat. An empty drag weighs about 35 pounds; full, the weight doubles or triples. The haul is emptied into an open-ended box that runs across the middle of the boats' width and the catch is culled (separated from the tangle of old shells, rocks, and various other marine stuff that comes up with the net.) Then, the scallops are bagged for market. From there on, there's just two last words: Shuck it!

Lee W. Baldwin, in The Cape Cod Seafood Cookbook (1990) MM by Dave Sacerdote

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