Scallop season ‘one of the worst’ in 30 years

Fishermen are reporting a very poor scallop season on P.E.I.

The province says it doesn't have hard numbers yet, but anecdotally landings are down across the province.

Myles MacDonald has been fishing scallops out of Wood Islands for 30 years.

“One of the worst that we've seen in that 30 years,” said MacDonald, adding a number of factors came together to keep the catch down.

“The biggest thing this year was that the meat quality was so poor, and the weather was also very poor this fall and the decline in the fish itself, like there was less scallops. I mean we all fish within 10 miles of each other, so it's pretty much the whole area that was down this year.”

MacDonald said he only caught about 30 per cent of his usual catch, which meant his revenue was down about $20,000.

Local supplier MR Seafood says it's having to rely on scallops from Nova Scotia because the size of the P.E.I. scallops caught this year is too small for restaurants.

The number of scallop fishermen has also declined this year, down from 100 to 40.