Many of our lobster-trapping vessels recently have been transformed into scallop-dredging vessels by the addition of metal masts, booms, and (stored on their decks when moored) “drags.” The drags are complicated chainring-net-and-wood dredges that are trawled along the sea bottom by the boom to scoop surprised scallops.
Vessels with or without that special equipment also may be scalloping boats for divers who descend to sea bottoms in SCUBA-type apparatuses and hand-harvest the more expensive “divers’ scallops.”
These transitional times also can produce seagull-frenzies when the always-hungry birds see such things as the prior season’s lobster bait containers being cleaned out and choice bits being tossed overboard:
If I’m reading Maine’s complex regulations correctly, the scallop season here opened Thursday, December 1, for diving and will open December 12 for dragging. (Images taken In Brooklin, Maine, on December 1, 2022.)