NEW BEDFORD — Using underwater video to survey scallop fishing grounds, researchers from UMass Dartmouth's School for Marine Science and Technology have hit the jackpot, discovering a trove of scallops in areas never before surveyed.
SMAST has completed a similar study every year since 1999 and this year's results are the latest chapter in a remarkable comeback story for an industry that nearly went bust in the late 1990s.
"When I came here in '97, the scallopers were in terrible shape," said SMAST's Kevin Stokesbury, chairman of the Department of Fisheries Oceanography, who headed the study. "About one-third of the fleet was on the verge of bankruptcy."
It's a very different story these days, thanks to the SMAST findings.
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