Many of our lobster boats recently have been converted to trawlers for the opening of the scallop dredging season tomorrow.
Above, you see the converted Dear Abbie: in Naskeag Harbor yesterday with her recently added mast and boom for trawling with a scallop dredge. The dredge is a steel-framed, chain mesh “net” that has a twine top for unloading; it’s dragged along the sea bottom to collect scallops and then winched onboard for unloading.
Dear Abbie: also now has a wooden “shelling house” constructed behind her cabin. That’s a protection from cold winter winds for the crew member who shucks the muscles from the scallop shells and puts that “meat” into containers. (What we eat are the scallops’ shell-opening and “swimming” muscles; the empty shells are thrown back into the water.)
Some of the converted fishing vessels are both trawlers and platforms for aqualung divers who hand-harvest choice muscles from the sea floor; these are the more expensive “divers’ scallops.” Tarrfish, shown above, , is one of these; she has a drop-down stern transom, which can be used to enter and exit the water easily. The diving season here opens December 2. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 29, 2021.)