Maine fishery regulators are expected to announce plans Tuesday to cut back the number of scallop fishing days.
The proposal would reduce the number of scallop fishing days in the south-western zone from 70 to 60 in the upcoming season, which starts in December.
"In the western part of the state the resource is much more patchily distributed," says Trisha Cheney, the scallop fishery management coordinator at the Maine Department of Marine Resources. "There's not as big bays containing these large scallop beds."
Another factor putting pressure on the fishery in this part of the state, she says, is the large number of displaced shrimp fishermen who are looking to catch scallops in the wintertime.
Elsewhere in the state, the scallop fishery is rebuilding as expected, and officials say in the midcoast and Down East zones the number of fishing days will remain the same at 70 and 50 respectively.
Maine scallops were worth almost $7.5 million last year, the most since 1993.