Pleasant Bay Community Boating to Present “The Last Bay Scallop?”

HARWICH – Pleasant Bay Community Boating will present “The Last Bay Scallop?” at the Chatham Orpheum Theater on Saturday.

A coffee reception will be held at 9 a.m., with the 30 minute film beginning at 10 a.m.

Following the screening, film director John Stanton will lead a discussion, joined by Chatham Shellfish Constable Renee Gagne and Center for Coastal Studies Director of Marine Fisheries Research Owen Nichols.

Tickets to the event are $10.

The waters of Nantucket Bay contain the last commercially viable bay scallop fishery on the East Coast.

In 1980, fishermen harvested more than 120,000 bushels of bay scallops from Nantucket and Madaket harbors.

In the commercial season that ended in March 2016, that number had dwindled to just 14,500 bushels.

The culprit, according to island scientists, is declining water quality which kills the eel grass scallops need to survive.

“The Last Bay Scallop?” examines the potential loss of the island’s commercial bay scallop fishery, water-quality issues, the local culture that formed itself around the fishery, and the fishermen and women who worked the waters each fall and winter.