Status of scallop farming: A review of techniques

by

Alessandro Lovatelli *

Many species of scallop are cultured and harvested all over the world. However, only few species, in particular the Pecten genus, dominate the world harvest. The Japanese are the leaders in scallop landings from natural fisheries and in culturing and manipulation of scallop. Other countries where commercial harvesting is important include Korea, USSR and Australia in the West Pacific, and Canada, the United States of America, Peru, Argentina and Chile in the East. Important landings also occur in the Atlantic rim countries such as Iceland, France, United Kingdom, and Norway.

The current world harvest of scallop is not accurately known. In 1985 the harvest of the most important species was 596,282 tonnes (FAO, 1987a), however, the landings from many other countries are often excluded either because landings are relatively small or because scallop are grouped with other bivalves or demersal fish. The principal countries harvesting scallop are as follows (Fig. 1):

Japan 226,786 tonnes Pactinopecten vessoensis USA 192,249 Pecten caurinus , Placopecten magellanicus , Argopecten gibbus , Argopecten irradians . Peru 51,462 Pectinidae Canada 46,400 Placopecten magellanicus Australia 19,213 Pectinidae United Kingdom 18,312 Pecten maximus , Chlamys opercularis Iceland 17,068 Pecten maximus . France 10,466 Pecten maximus , Chlamys opercularis , Pectinidae. New Zealand 3,204 Pecten novaezealandiae USSR 2,425 Pactinopecten yessoensis Chile 2,107 Argopecten purpuratus , Pectinidae Faeroe Is 1,930 Chlamys opercularis Norway 1,192 Pectinidae Argentina 1,086 Pectinidae Indonesia 700 Pectinidae Korea 586 Pactinopecten vessoensis Belgium 463 Pecten maximus Ireland 462 Pecten maximus , Chlamys opercularis . Philippines 126 Pectinidae Spain 91 Pecten maximus , Pectinidae. Others 54 Pactinopecten vessoensis , Pecten jacobeus , Pectinidae,

The world scallop harvest has declined considerably compared with the 1984 world catch, which was 834,186 tonnes. This decline is possibly due to the over-exploitation of important fisheries and poor spatfall. The USA P. magellanicus fisheries have been declining since 1982, when the annual catches reached 75,778 tonnes compared with the 57,709 tonnes of 1985. The USA landing of the calipo scallop ( A. gibbus ) for 1985 has decreased by over 31% compared with the landings of the previous year.