Grow-out Culture of the Bay Scallop

Attempts at private aquaculture enterprises resulted in few success stories until 1983, when twenty-six scallops survived a shipment to China and were spawned successfully. From this humble beginning, Chinese bay scallop aquaculture yielded 300,000 metric tons of product in 1998, grown on 7,000 hectares of embayment. The Chinese bay scallop has since been readily available in U.S. markets at a much lower price than the wild domestic product (Figure 2). In the U.S., the first and only successful bay scallop culture enterprise is run by Taylor Seafood of Fairhaven, Massachusetts. The limited success of scallop aquaculture in the US has been attributed to high labor costs and winter mortalities associated with the “grow-out” phase of the culture cycle. Once the bay scallop has achieved a juvenile University of Maryland, 2113 Animal Science Building College Park, Maryland 20742-2317 Telephone: 301-405-6085, FAX: 301-314-9412 E-mail: [email protected] Web: http://www.nrac.umd.edu