Domestic Scallop Market: November 2009
The US scallop fishery is divided into two segments; restricted areas (commonly referred to as Closed Areas) and unrestricted areas (commonly referred to as Open Areas). The scallop fleet of approximately 340 vessels is given a Days At Sea (DAS) Open Area quota beginning on March 1st. This year's quota is 37 DAS versus 35 last year and 42 the prior year.
The US scallop fishery currently has six Closed Areas (Georges I, Georges II, Lightship, Delmarva, Elephant Trunk and Hudson Canyon). Georges Bank and Lightship are in the North Atlantic while Delmarva, Elephant Trunk and Hudson Canyon are in the Mid Atlantic region. Each fishing season each vessel is allocated a number of 18,000 lb trips in assigned areas. This year boats were allocated 1 trip in Georges II (AKA CAII), 1 trip in Delmarva and 3 trips in Elephant Trunk. The closure and rotation of restricted areas are designed to allow both scallops and ground fish to reproduce. The US harvest is expected to be 55 million pounds +/- 5%, approximately 50% of the Closed Areas and 50% from the Open Area.
With the closure of Area II for the fishing season and the temporary closure of Elephant Trunk for the months of Sept and Oct, most of the fleet has focused on fishing their remaining open area days at sea. The open area is yielding fewer U/10's and a much larger percentage of 20/30's, while the market continues to crave for U/10's.
On Nov 1 the Elephant Truck area reopens and most of the boats that have not caught the Elephant Trunk quota will head to this area to check the yields. For most of the fleet one trip into the area will finish their quota for the season while others will complete their last trip into Delmarva. We believe that we will see a fair amount of production from mid November thru mid December then a continuous decline in production from late December through the middle of March.
Prices for U/10's are at or near historical highs while 10/20's and 20/30's have increased only slightly in recent weeks, but are still about $0.75/lb less than last year. In the coming months we expect the price of 10/20's to continue to escalate as production drops and demand increases, especially if we experience any major storms.
On the imported side, most of the sea scallop have arrived and prices continue to firm due to the week dollar. Supply of China bay scallops has suddenly become short, especially 80/100's. The harvest has begun in China and product is expected to arrive around the holidays.