The Harbor & Shellfish Advisory Board on Feb. 4 considered two related options for the commercial bay scallop season: asking the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries for a short extension of the season and raising the commercial bushel limit from six to seven.

Tara Riley, natural-resources staff, said the town has "enough information" to front-load a request to the state and that Dan McKernan at the Division of Marine Fisheries suggested the select board put an official letter in writing. "His suggestion would be to develop the request and the rationale and have the select board put it in writing for him," Riley said. She said the town could request "at least a 2 week extension." Riley told the board she will work on that request.

Commercial fishermen and board members gave mixed feedback. Adam Spencer, a commercial fisherman who phoned in, said: "I'd probably be more into extending the season than going after 7." Another fisherman said some buyers and restaurants would welcome fresh scallops in April, arguing a longer season could support sales; other fishermen warned increasing the bushel limit might depress price in some markets. On price, one caller said "this $12 a pound to me, is a slap in the face to the fishery," and noted sea scallops were fetching about $19 a pound wholesale.

Board members reported missed fishing days during January due to cold weather and rough conditions. Riley said January bushel counts were incomplete (six days of data available) and estimated season-to-date harvest at "somewhere around 6,000" bushels based on limited samples; she flagged that cold-weather missed days reduced the available fishing opportunities.

The board did not adopt a final policy at the meeting. Members agreed to keep both options on the agenda for future meetings, requested broader input from the fleet and asked staff to coordinate an official request through the select board to DMF in time to act this month. The board also discussed outreach to buyers and urged the shellfish warden to collect daily input from fishermen to inform any request.

The board will revisit the options at its next meeting; Riley said staff will prepare a draft request for the select board and collect further fishing-effort and market information before the board formalizes a recommendation.