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Maine's Resurgent Scallop Fishery Ending For The Season

Maine Public/file
A Maine fishermen with a basket of scallops in December of 2012.

PORTLAND, Maine - Maine's scallop fishery is reaching the end of a season that showed signs of further rebuilding.
 
The fishery collapsed in the mid-2000s and has steadily rebuilt amid new management measures over the last few years. Tuesday is the final day of the 2017-18 season for scallop draggers to harvest the shellfish.
 
The fishery still includes a few divers who harvest scallops by hand, and they can continue working until April 15.
 
The season runs from December to April every year. Fishermen harvested more than 790,000 pounds of scallops during the 2017 calendar year, which included the first month of the 2017-18 fishing season. That was the highest total since 1997.