A project led by the Coonamessett Farm Foundation (CFF) and Saltwater, Inc (SWI). is testing the feasibility of voluntary, cost-shared electronic monitoring (EM) on six commercial sea scallop fishing vessels in Massachusetts and New Jersey.
Turbulent outlook for the fishery
After ranking among the most economically important fisheries in the United States (U.S.) over the last decade, accounting for more than $480 million of commercial landings in 2022 alone, the Atlantic sea scallop fishery is bracing for a few challenging years ahead. The total exploitable biomass of sea scallops appears to be on a downward trend, with climate change threatening the long-term health of the population. The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) estimated annual projected landings for the 2025 fishing year to generate only about $348.3 million (19.8 million pounds) in landings, a 28% reduction from 2024.
As the fishery looks for novel cost-cutting measures to weather the coming reductions in catch, the Industry-Funded Scallop (IFS) Program sticks out as large annual expenditure for all fishermen. Observers for the sea scallop fishery are managed though the IFS. In this program, vessels selected to carry an observer must pay for that coverage, equal to ~$800 each day of the trip. Although, the IFS sets aside 1% of the annual catch limit that is redistributed back to vessels to partially offset their costs for carrying an observer. In 2025, this 1% set aside would amount to about $3.5 million in landings.
In addition to observer costs, another systematic inefficiency associated with current sea scallop fishing management is the days-at-sea (DAS) calculation methodology. Currently it is not possible to determine whether a vessel is fishing or transiting from the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) alone, days-at-sea are currently calculated by transit time after a vessel crosses the VMS Demarcation Line, which runs parallel to the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to Maine, and notifies the Coast Guard of its fishing activity. As a result of this rule, vessels that depart from ports closer to productive fishing regions are at an advantage. For example, a sea scallop vessel based in New Bedford, MA planning to fish on Georges Bank in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean could transit along an efficient, straight pathway. Whereas a vessel departing from Cape May, NJ might elect to transit along the U.S. coast to Nantucket before darting out of the VMS Demarcation Line to fish the same area.
By hugging the coast, vessels departing from the Mid-Atlantic consume more fuel and waste time. Furthermore, these vessels are not permitted to transit over several closed rotational sea scallop access areas, which further restricts their trajectories. If DAS could be determined based on the exact time a sea scallop dredge enters the water for the first time during a trip, individual vessels could save hundreds of thousands of dollars over a season, while spending fewer consecutive days away from their families.
Electronic monitoring, a win-win alternative?
In July 2024, Dr. Andrew Corso, Justin Potter (CFF), Kathryn Carovano (SWI), and Michael Enzenauer (SWI) began a pilot project, which is funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) Electronic Monitoring and Reporting Grant Program, to evaluate the feasibility of using EM systems to collect similar data to observer trips, while also monitoring fishing activity. With six commercial sea scallop vessels voluntarily participating from New Bedford, MA, Barnegat Light, NJ, and Cape May, NJ, this cross-regional project is the first of its kind for the U.S. sea scallop industry. After collaborative agreements were formed with all participating vessels, SWI’s technical team, led by Michael Enzenauer, began installing EM systems to monitor sea scallop catch. Each EM system is comprised of 2 cameras, multiple gear sensors, wheelhouse monitor/keyboard, control box equipped with hard drive caddy, and a GPS antenna. The EM system currently collects sensor and GPS data every 10 seconds while video data is activated by gear sensors which were installed on the fishing dredge winches. As of February 2025, all six vessels were fully outfitted with EM systems and over 135 DAS of fishing effort have been recorded with video analysis currently underway.
Video paired with winch-mounted sensors and GPS data allows for precise estimates of dredge setting and hauling. This information is important for refining the DAS calculation, which will be a primary incentive driving buy-in of EM among sea scallop fishermen. In addition to improved cost efficiency, EM also reduces risks for both observers and fishermen and the potential logistic challenges to coordinate fishing trips selected for observer coverage. In 2022, nearly 50% of the 140 observers available in the Northeast were newly certified, revealing the challenge of recruiting and retaining observers in the fishery. Reducing exposure of relatively inexperienced observers to the hazards of commercial sea scallop fishing by offsetting their effort with EM tools will limit potential injuries and conflicts that could occur on vessels. Replacing observers with EM could also bring significant costs savings to the IFS program, thus serving as another incentive for sea scallop fishermen to implement EM systems.
In addition to being able to determine exactly when fishing effort begins and stops with sensors and cameras, this pilot project also seeks to improve target coverage of the fishery to improve management. Observer coverage has been inadequate in the fishery for the last six years, with achieved coverage ranging from 0.6 – 5.6% for the general category and 3.6 – 9.2% for the limited access fleet. Since 2018, target coverage (ranging from 4.5 – 16.7%) has never been achieved in the limited access fleet and achieved only once in the general category. Data collected from vessels can require months of processing before finalization, with delays in target completion approaching 100 days in 2022.
Diving deeper with bycatch and fisheries dependent data
Another goal of this project is to remotely collect data that is comparable to data collected by IFS observers. In addition to information on sea scallop catch, based on the area fished by a vessel, observers are trained to identify, measure, and obtain biological samples from several key bycatch species, such as yellowtail flounder, Atlantic cod, monkfish, and ocean pout. In the second year of the pilot effort, CFF plans to install a bycatch measuring system on several of the vessels, with a goal of capturing this data via video while requiring minimal behavioral modifications from fishermen.
To develop novel sources of fisheries dependent data (FDD), CFF outfitted each participating vessel with a dredge-mounted sensor that records ocean temperature and depth during each tow. CFF also partnered with the environmental monitors on lobster traps and large trawlers (eMOLT) program, with plans to install more sophisticated sensors on several of the vessels already outfitted with EM systems in 2025. With these data, CFF plans to link both sea scallop and bycatch abundance with oceanographic conditions to fill in gaps of existing fisheries independent surveys, such as during the winter season. One goal of the project is to integrate these sources of data to more effectively track changes in the fishery associated with changing ocean temperatures.
Next Steps
In January 2025, vessel owners, captains, shoreside personnel, CFF, and SWI participated in a collaborative workshop for the second year of the project. Captains and shoreside managers shared their experiences with the EM systems and offered valuable feedback for planning the next steps of the project. Due to overwhelming positive experiences with system operations, logistical support, and buy-in, there is a great sense of confidence in the project among participants.
CFF and SWI would like to thank the vessel crews, captains, and owners for their continued support of this project, and we are grateful to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for their funding.
Projects in the Field is a series of independently produced articles profiling work supported by National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Electronic Monitoring & Reporting Grant Program, and is meant to raise awareness and support for these important initiatives.
