The Re-establishment of the bay scallop in Chincoteague Bay

Details

• Personal Author:
  Tarnowski, Mitchell ; Homer, Mark ; Bussell, Robert
• Corporate Authors:
  Maryland. Department of Natural Resources
• NOAA Program & Office:
  NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service)
• Description:
  Bay scallops (Argopecten irradians) were once found throughout the coastal bays system and formed the basis of a small but lucrative fishery centered around Chincoteague, Virginia. However, when a blight eradicated the eelgrass meadows in the early 1930's, the scallops lost their preferred habitat and subsequently disappeared. In recent years seagrasses have made a substantative recovery in this region. With thousands of acres of seagrass meadows now in existence, and stable, relatively high year-round salinities afforded through the stabilization of the Ocean City (Md.) Inlet, conditions appear to be optimal for the re-establishment of the bay scallop. It seemed that the primary hindrance to the return of the bay scallop was the absence of a proximal source of reproducing adults. A restoration effort by the MDNRShellfish Program resulted in the planting of 1.2 million seed scallops in Chincoteague Bay during 1997 and 1998.
• Keywords:
  Bay Scallop Economic Assistance Estuarine Restoration Federal Government Monitoring Recolonization State Governments Bay Scallop Economic Assistance Estuarine Restoration Federal Government State Governments

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• Format:
  pdf
• Document Type:
  Non-series Report
• Funding:
  Grant no. NA66FK0086
• Place as Subject:
  Chincoteague Bay (Md. and Va.)
• License:
  https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
• Rights Information:
  CC0 Public Domain
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d8dbd432ea51a91ee10e0eff989a3f55ea2d64f329b009cf09cd2768327fadf929b1054db059ae7b1bc238ac322fd6216a8e328c9207e67a5a063d4dcaf8bdb5
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/73948/noaa_73948_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 20.08 MB ]