Results for the 2019 VIMS Industry Cooperative Surveys of the Mid-Atlantic, Nantucket Lightship Closed Area, 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), Closed Area I (CAI), and Closed Area II (CAII) during May–July 2019. 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 18,884 mt or 41.6 million pounds for the Open Elephant Truck (ET-Open) SAMS Area and 18,691 mt or 41.2 million pounds in the Elephant Trunk Flex (ET-Flex) SAMS Area. For open bottom in the Long Island (LI) SAMS Area, exploitable biomass was estimated at 9,437 mt or 20.8 million pounds. In the western NLCA SAMS Area (NLS-West), the exploitable biomass was 1,052 mt or 2.3 million pounds
