The Coonamessett Farm Foundation has released the final report for its Evaluating the Key Factors that Influence the Efficacy of Transplanting to Supplement Recruitment project. This report was submitted to NOAA Fisheries earlier this month and was prepared under the 2022 Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside Program. continuing more than a decade of collaborative, industry-based research. The report summarizes scallop transplanting efforts from 2020-2024 evaluating the influence of dispersal, growth, and mortality on the persistence of transplanted beds.  

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This research indicates that transplanting sea scallops from high-density, growth-limited areas to more favorable environments can produce meaningful biological and economic gains. Once transplanted to an area, scallops spread across while remaining at commercially viable densities, reducing concerns about excessive loss due to dispersal. Using bio-economic modeling of transplanting, we demonstrate that this technique can transform a low-value, slow-growing biomass into a higher-value product under a variety of market and mortality conditions. Overall, the findings suggest that transplanting can be an effective, though context-dependent, strategy for improving scallop production...