Nantucket Bay Scallops

International Seafood Show

The Nantucket Bay Scallop Company crew traveled to Boston in the middle of a nor’easter.  The show is amazing, held at the Boston Convention Center it is a cornucopia of food from the sea.  Lots of great ideas for Nantucket Bay Scallops, and great to meet some people with great products.

Post snowstorm

We are glad the new years storm is gone.  Several days of high winds and low temperatures kept everyone form fishing as we can;t fish when it is below 28.  We woke up to the first bay scallop fishing day of the new year and it was great.  A beautiful sunrise over Madaket Harbor.  A great start to 2010.

Breaking the ice

Hither Creek was a sheet of ice today.  We went out today to break it up so we could get out tomorrow.  It took two boats to make a path out to the harbor.  Should be good fishing tomorrow.

Too Cold for Nantucket Scallops

One of the regulations that scallopers must follow is the 28 degree rule.  If the ambient temperature is below 28 before 10a.m. there is no fishing for the day.  The idea behind the rule is that when you pull the Nantucket Bay Scallops out of the water this also includes the babies (know as spat) or 1 year olds.  The cold weather could potentially kill the baby scallops hurting the fishery.  So we have two days off.  We are thankful as it allows us time to Christmas Shop, and we saved enough scallops for our orders today!  The photo below is the flag in front of the Harbormaster’s office that indiicates “no scalloping today.”

Back to work

Commercial Scalloping is regulated as a Monday through Friday operation, fishing starts at 6:30 a.m., and today we have a little ambient light at 6:30.  Here is Kona working the culling board emptying his first dredge of the day.

Nantucket Scallops taste better!

When its cold outside!  Temperatures are back to normal now out on island, the wind thankfully has let up today.  Should get interesting tomorrow.  The crowds are thinning out on the water, we’ll see how things shape up the next few days.

This is 10 lbs. of Nantucket Bay Scallops

The possibilities are endless.

Nantucket Bay Scallop recipe ideas.

Here is a sampling of what our clients are making this year starting with a Nantucket Bay Scallop:

Nantucket Bay Scallops wrapped in Bacon served on marscapone polenta.

Roasted Bay Scallops with ginger Buerre Blanc.

Champagne risotto with seared bay scallops.

Seared scallops with Cider Brown Butter

Thai Nantucket Bay Scallop ceviche

E-Mail us your recipes!

Time to head back out!

Tomorrow starts another day of fishing for us.  Nantucket Bay Scallops can be commercially harvested Monday through Friday from 630am on.  So we are out on the water by 6, and hopefully in as soon as possible so we can shuck them and get them off to our customers.  At Nantucket Bay Scallop Company our goal is to have as few hands and steps involved in the process of getting scallops from the harbor to your table.

53 degrees!

The water temperature in and around Nantucket Sound is at least 5 degrees warmer than last year.  I went family scalloping yesterday in my 5mm wetsuit.  Felt toasty for an hour.  Made for a delicious Thanksgiving addition.  Here is a picture of the biggest scallop contest.  Nantucket residents (and non-residents) are allowed to catch Nantucket Bay Scallops from Oct. 1 to Mar 31.  There are 3 main ways to catch them, Use a pushrake, use a dop net and snorkeling/scuba.  Since it was so warm we chose to take a dip.