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Professor of Marine Science Paul Rawson and fourth-year doctoral candidate Erin Nolan are performing a long-term study of sea scallop populations in the waters off the coast of Maine.
The study, which is scheduled to continue into 2007, is an attempt to determine what relationships exist between the scallop populations of different areas.
Nolan and Rawson have taken scallop samples from various areas along the coast and have been examining their genetic structure and the chemical composition of their shells. The pair hopes to find out if the same stock of scallops migrate from one area to another.
The goal of the study is to provide the scallop industry with useful information about the populations, which will be used to develop management strategies for keeping the industry afloat.
The scallop research is a bit of a departure for Rawson, who works mostly with bivalves.
“We work primarily in shellfish genetics,” he said, but added that the lab is well suited for their current research.
“Scallop fishing is very important to the state of Maine,” he said.
Population control is and has been a slight problem for the scallop fishery because it is not as easily regulated as other types of fishing.
“Much of the scallop fishery is in federal waters,” Rawson pointed out. This means that depending on where they are, the guidelines are different for the fishermen.
Understanding how the populations are related over geographic areas is very important in developing intelligent management structures for the region.
“We aren’t the managers, and we’re not the fishermen,” Rawson said, “but we’re trying to help them both.”
Scallop harvests have been getting smaller and smaller over the past few decades, dropping from more than $15 million in revenue in 1981 to less than $1 million in 2004.
It is sometimes thought that these kinds of figures are indicative of over-fishing, leading to management decisions to restrict the rules for the fishery.
“Too often, fishermen are distrustful of scientists,” Rawson said. The fishermen often resent these sorts of measures, which are economically stressful.
“We want them to know we’re trying to make the fishery stronger,” he said.
One of the many goals of the research is to prevent the necessity of putting a freeze on scallop fishing, which would deal a huge economic blow to the state.
The research that Rawson and Nolan are doing is the result of a $110,000 grant from the Maine Sea Grant Project.
The idea for the research, Rawson said, was primarily Nolan’s.
“She’s the driving force behind this project,” Rawson said.
Nolan began working with scallops and scallop research in 2001, when she was involved with the Stonington Fisheries Alliance.
She said that many of the fishermen she met there were interested in knowing where the scallops they were catching came from.”
She is working to develop geo-chemical methods for determining which waters scallops have traveled through.
The scallops take in minerals from the water, many of which are used to build the shell.
They hope their research will determine if the genetics of the scallop and the chemistry of the shell can indicate the waters of origin.
“We’re hoping to have a result by 2007,” said Nolan.
The Maine Sea Grant project is a federally funded organization. It works along similar lines as the Maine Land Grant project, which also has offices at the University of Maine.
Bangor Daily News