Engaging the Fishing Community to Understand Disease and Reproductive Dynamics of Atlantic Sea Scallop

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:

The Atlantic sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus) is the second most valuable fishery in the United States, with over $670 million in landings in 2021. A changing climate, however, has begun and will continue to impact the biology of the species through the emergence of diseases and changes in reproductive dynamics. This research aims to better comprehend Atlantic sea scallop health, inform fisheries management decisions, and provide the sea scallop fishing industry with the tools needed to understand and plan for the impacts of climate change. To do this, we are using the Research Fleet approach to investigate the impacts of climate change on sea scallops by engaging fishermen to collect data on the distribution and incidence of grey meats, nematodes, shell blister disease, and reproductive condition. This research is being completed in two phases: Phase 1 was completed in 2024, and Phase 2 is currently underway.

phase 1 PROJECT GOALS:

ScallApp Icon

Develop protocols and equip scallopers with a custom-built smartphone app to easily collect biological scallop data at-sea. The new app is named ScallApp.

Engage fishermen in collaborative research methods, increasing knowledge and resilience within the fishing community
Increase fishery-dependent data collection within the Atlantic sea scallop fishery to better inform fisheries management on scallop health and reproductive condition

Phase 1 Results:

We have completed the first phase of our project to develop a new data collection application (app) that equips fishermen with a tool to collect biological data on sea scallops. The resulting app, named ScallApp, allows scallopers to efficiently collect disease and reproductive data from photos of individual scallops taken at sea.

After developing ScallApp, we collaborated with ten fishermen to conduct beta and full testing periods. These testing periods allowed us to make iterative improvements to ScallApp, resulting in an easy-to-use app available on both iOS and Android platforms. During this project, participants collected nearly two hundred images from a broad geographic area that spanned the Mid-Atlantic bight out to eastern Georges Bank. We used this data to develop a database for user submissions. We also created an interactive distribution map that displays verified photo submissions (see photo below), which will be publicly available to scientists and the fishing industry in future phases of this project. We’re excited to continue to build on this project and are confident that ScallApp can be modified for differing data collection goals and introduced to a larger fleet of participants in the next phase.

Read the final report for phase one here.