Federal regulators have injected uncertainty into Maine’s scallop fishery by closing a highly productive shellfish region to all federal permit holders less than two weeks into the harvest season.
The indefinite closure of the Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop Management Area followed NOAA Fisheries’ determination that the region’s 2025 “default quota” of roughly 315,500 pounds of sea scallops would be met by 6 p.m. EDT on April 11.
NOAA normally updates the annual quota before the beginning of the season. But the agency has not yet acted this year, something industry groups and environmentalists say has become a pattern of NOAA regulatory foot-dragging under the new Trump administration.
“The Gulf of Maine scallop fishery is poised to take a big economic hit because internal disruptions are delaying the routine rulemakings that ensure fishing businesses can function,” said Meredith Moore, senior director of the fish conservation program at the Ocean Conservancy, in a statement.
