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     Title: Cape Cod Bay Scallops - Information
Categories: Info, Shellfish, Seafood
     Yield: 1 Info file

          Information only

 Cape Cod Bay scallops are found in local inlets and bays off Cape
 Cod, in waters ranging from 4 to 40 feet deep.  When mature enough to
 go to market, their fluted shells will be nearly 3 inches round.
 Several vary-colored rings arc through the middle of the shells.
 These are growth rings. The scallop grows in spurts, marking its
 lifespan in monthly ripples, much as trees do on an annual basis.

 What part is edible?  Many Europeans eat the entire scallop.  But
 here, on the other side of the Atlantic, the waste (called "gurry")
 is thrown to the cats and is said to make their ears fall off.  The
 edible part of a bay scallop is the tiny muscle which holds the
 shells together. Called an "eye", it weighs in at 1/6th to total
 scallop's weight. So a bushel of scallops yields only 6 to 8 pounds
 of meat. That's the reason the prices make you gulp - but make sure
 you nibble when you get to the eating.

 The entire Eastern seaboard plays host to some type of bay scallop.
 Southerners are called "calicos" and don't possess the sweet briny
 bite of the northerners.  Most Cape Cod towns have scallop beds, but
 because of the mollusk's mobility (they swim by opening and closing
 their shells with a snap) they cross town lines without conscience.
 Where they'll be bedded when the season opens is anybody's guess.
 Chatham currently reigns as the most popular Cape scalloping town.
 Everything that will float is usually transformed into a scallop boat
 before Chatham's scallop season opens on November 1st.  Long before
 sunup on opening day, hundreds of skiffs, scows, and runabouts line
 the shores. At the first crack of dawn, the hopeful shellfishermen
 push off from the sands in a reverse beachhead. The annual gold rush
 is on.

 October through March is traditionally scallop season.  Some towns
 hold back on their season until November, if authorities (usually not
 shellfishermen) feel the scallops need more growth.  While the
 scallop can be gathered until March, the beds fish out long before
 that date if it's a bad year.  Adult scallops spawn at the end of
 summer, relying on the temperature and salinity of the water for
 their cue. The eggs freefloat for a few days and then sink to the
 bottom where they attach themselves to eelgrass or old shells.  Here
 they quickly resemble their parents, even though barely *-inch long.
 In a few weeks they will have grown large enough to control their own
 travels, so they detach themselves from their first home and follow
 the plankton upon which they feed. This is next year's scallop crop,
 for their natural lifespan is between 18 to 24 months.

 Family permit holders gather scallops with a large rake in shallow
 waters and work from a boat in deep water by using a net on a long
 pole to scoop them from the bottom.  Commercial scallopers drag for
 the shellfish with a rig that has a chain bottom topped with a net.
 This heavy work is done by hand with one or two people per boat.  An
 empty drag weighs about 35 pounds; full, the weight doubles or
 triples. The haul is emptied into an open-ended box that runs across
 the middle of the boats' width and the catch is culled (separated
 from the tangle of old shells, rocks, and various other marine stuff
 that comes up with the net.) Then, the scallops are bagged for
 market. From there on, there's just two last words: Shuck it!

 Lee W. Baldwin, in The Cape Cod Seafood Cookbook (1990)
 MM by Dave Sacerdote.  U/L to NCE by Burt Ford 05/01.

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