Nantucket Shellfish Board Votes 4-1 to Raise Bushel Limit to Seven

Other Committee · Meeting of February 17, 2026

Nantucket shellfish board raises bay scallop bushel limit to seven starting Feb. 23. The Harbor and Shellfish Advisory Board voted 4-0 with one abstention from member Sherwin to lift the commercial bushel limit from six to seven per license, after board member Anderson argued the fleet had already lost roughly 15 fishing days to winter weather. Natural resources presenter Tara Riley said a scalloper reported finding roughly 10 seed scallops for every adult, a sign the increase would not hurt the resource.

A fisherman identified only as Jim told the board "people aren't going to, like, jump in all of a sudden 50 boats out there" because of the change. The board separately tabled a request to open recreational scalloping on Mondays and Tuesdays and continued work toward a Town Meeting warrant article to move the harbor's no-wake zone buoy farther out.

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Source: the Other Committee meeting of February 17, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.