2012 Scallop Season Ocean City MD

[homey]

Anybody have any information on this, I'm trying to find out if the Ocean City scallop grounds will be closed again this season? I've done a search on the internet and can't find anything....Thanks.

[Krabill]

http://www.nefmc.org/scallops/120203...va%20issue.pdf

a month ago they motioned for the delmarva area to be closed this year

[homey]

Thanks, that was alot to read. It appears the area will be closed....

[Fish&Surf757]

my buddy is a scalloper out of hampton, va. He said they arent fishing in the delmarva area because theres not enough scallops there to be worth it. They usually fish an area called the "elephant trunk" and he tells me stories of hundreds of bluefin and yellowfin around the boat while they are cutting. They eat the scallop guts thrown back over. He says that the area gets fished out in cycles. In another 2 or 3 years they will start hitting it again but for now they are going all the way up off of long island. I cant remember the stuff he said about open vs closed areas but their last few trips to the elephant trunk have been busts.

[TerpHeels]

he tells me stories of hundreds of bluefin and yellowfin around the boat while they are cutting

Was common place off DelMarVa too until the bottom got raped.

[Mako22]

My theory over the past few years has been that the inshore BFT have been following the scallop boats as they moved up the coast to fish off of NJ waters. Would bet money that when scallops rebound off delmarva and the area is opened again, we will once again have a solid BFT season rather than the few passing through and setting up shop where the scallopers are working.

[Krabill]

Was common place off DelMarVa too until the bottom got raped.

Yup, exactly

[capt. jakeg]

Also during the 90s there were huge fleets of boats chunking that brought fish into and held fish in the area. Hardly anyone chunks anymore. But if there were 100s of boat sitting on the inshore structure dumping 100s of pounds of bait each in the water each day, scallopers or not, there would definitely be some fish around.