Results for the 2020 VIMS Industry Cooperative Surveys of the Mid-Atlantic, Nantucket Lightship, Great South Channel, Closed Area I, and Closed Area II Resource Areas
The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) conducted high resolution sea scallop dredge surveys of the entire Mid-Atlantic (MAB), the Nantucket Lightship (NLCA), Great South Channel (GSC), Closed Area I (CAI), and Closed Area II (CAII) during July–September 2020. These surveys were funded by the Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside Program (RSA). Exploitable biomass for each survey is shown in Table 1 for each spatially explicit SAMS Area (Scallop Area Management Simulator). SAMS Areas represent management relevant spatial subunits of the resource and explicitly account for differences in recruitment, vital rates, and fishing effort in the forward projection of survey information. Maps of SAMS Areas are provided in Figures 1-5. At the time of the surveys, exploitable biomass estimated from the commercial dredge was 7,443 mt or 16.4 million pounds for the ET Open SAMS Area and 3,081 mt or 6.8 million pounds in the ET Flex SAMS Area. For open bottom in the LI SAMS Area, exploitable biomass was estimated at 6,082 mt or 13.4 million pounds. In the NLCA South Deep SAMS Area, the exploitable biomass was 4,222 mt or 9.3 million pounds. This estimate is lower than total biomass in the SAMS Area and a function of accounting for potential high grading due to scallop sizes observed in this SAMS Area. In the GSC, no data are available for the commercial dredge this year
