Last week, the April school vacation week wrapped up. Some people took time off during the break while others traveled — some to places nearby and others far away. For some Mainers, that trip took them down to Gloucester, Massachusetts — the launch point for fishing boats heading out to harvest scallops at this time of year.
The area where they were headed to fish is known as the Northern Gulf of Maine, and you need to have a specific permit to fish there. The season is short, beginning on April 1 and only lasting until the quota is filled, hence the reason for basing out of Gloucester, nearby to the fishing grounds, during the time the season is open. This year’s season just ended earlier this week. That’s because at that point the quota had been filled for the NGOM area until the start of the next fishing year.
While these fishermen traveled by boat just a couple of states away, others in the seafood world traveled overseas to partake of scallops in a different way. A group from Maine embarked over the vacation week for the coast of France to learn more about the culinary traditions around scallops there. They met with chefs, fishermen, retailers, restaurateurs and scientists as part of a project funded by the NOAA National Sea Grant Office to the Maine Sea Grant College Program.
It might seem odd for a group from Maine to travel all the way to France to learn about scallops, given the amazing local supply, but one of the focuses of this trip was to learn more about cooking with whole scallops rather than just the adductor muscles that American chefs are typically limited to using. Regulations in the United States require that wild harvested scallops be shucked at sea. That means two things: one, that once the scallops are landed, they are no longer alive, having been cut away from the shell; and two, that the organs have been discarded, leaving only the white adductor muscle we are familiar with as a scallop at the fish market or restaurant. The reason for discarding the rest of the scallop is that there can be toxins in these organs that make them unsafe to eat. These regulations are not the same in other parts of the world, including France.
The exception to the whole scallop rule in the U.S. is farmed scallops. In fact, Maine is the only state in the country that produces whole farmed scallops. Oyster and mussel farming may be more familiar to most people, but scallops are also being farmed in Maine and with more frequency. Recent data from the Maine Department of Marine Resources documented a 10-fold increase in scallop farming from 2022–2023. That presents an opportunity for the Maine seafood market — both for home chefs and restaurateurs. The aim of the group that traveled to France was to learn about cooking with whole scallops and to transfer that knowledge back to Maine in order to support the growing supply and availability here.
The liaison for the trip was Chef Jean-Louis Gerin, a dual citizen of both countries, Master Chef of France, James Beard Award winner and chef at two Michelin three-star restaurants. Those from Maine included both representatives from the wild harvested and farmed scallop worlds. It also included chefs and others from Maine’s culinary and seafood communities. The trip started in Paris and continued to the coasts of Normandy and Brittany. It was timed to end in Paimpol, home of an annual Fête de la Coquille Saint-Jacques (French for scallop, although many refer to it as the “reine de la mer” or queen of the seas). The festival marks the end of the scallop season in that region which produces more than 200 tons of scallops every week.
If you are looking to try whole scallops without traveling to France, you can buy them here in Maine directly from SoPo Seafood in South Portland. Their scallops come from a farm in Stonington and can be shipped or bought at SoPo’s market when available. PenBay Farmed Scallops is owned by Marsden and Bob Brewer, a father-son team that have been leaders in developing aquaculture techniques for scallops in Maine.
And if you’re looking for how to prepare whole scallops, you can find recipes online at penbayfarmedscallops.com/recipes, which is a digital version of a cookbook co-written by Marsden and Marnie Reed Crowell, a local natural history writer.
The wild harvested ones are always delicious as well and are one of the best-freezing types of seafood out there, making them something you can buy in season and enjoy all year.
Susan Olcott is the director of operations at Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association.
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