MY MAINE SCALLOPS AND HISTORY

Scallops rinsed in sea water on the boat

Fresh Wild Maine Scallops are only available December - March. This is the only time of year Maine commercial fisherman are allowed to harvest wild sea scallops. Other names you may commonly see used are "day boat scallops" "dry scallops" "sea scallops" and "diver scallops." My scallops are harvested fresh from the ocean floor in an environmentally responsible manner with a seven foot chain sweep drag. Scallops are brought home and sold to you the same day the product is harvested.  The scallops are shucked and rinsed in salt water on the boat. Fishing on the wild and wooly waters of coastal Maine in the dead of winter no ice is ever needed nor touches my scallops. Ice can change the flavor (good rule of thumb, never let fresh water/ice touch your seafood)! The taste of these scallops can not be compared to what most consumers will find in the grocery store. Scallops sold in large supermarket chains are often culled and soaked for uniform size and color - white scallops are the end result. This process leaches out the natural pigments - and you can only imagine how that impacts taste. Similar to picking fresh fruit off a tree, scallops freshly harvested from the ocean will be flavorful, juicy, NEVER fishy or smelly, and be a special sensory delight to the most distinguished food connoisseur. For the rest of us these scallops are just plain old "Yummy!" Maine Scallops and particular those from Blue Hill and Penobscot bay are known to be colorful and especially sweet!

My wild-caught Maine Sea Scallops were not caged and never penned on a farm.  My scallops were allowed to swim (yes they swim!!) wild and free on the bottom of the ocean in the waters surrounding the Blue Hill Peninsula before they were harvested  (pretty good life I think). They have not been soaked in chemicals or rinsed  with fresh water.  Fresh sea scallops will smell like the ocean and be flavorful and sweet!  The scallops you purchase from me may have natural  variations in color, they will not be pure white. Yellow and pink scallops are  locally known in Maine as “butter scallops” and are highly desirable and  requested by scallop connoisseurs who enjoy the colorful presentment on the plate along with their rich flavor.  My scallops have not been processed commercially, so they include what is known by Mainers as the “sweet meats”  which is a tiny muscle which is attached to the body of the scallop meat, some  people enjoy eating these with their scallop, other folks prefer to remove them before preparation or feed them as a treat to their pets. (Our kitties  love "daddy" when he comes home and prepares them "sweet meats") Sweet meats  can be removed by gently peeling them off from the side of the scallop.

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FEEL GOOD ABOUT WHAT YOU EAT - KNOW WHAT YOU BUY AND WHO YOU ARE BUYING FROM!! Eating fresh seafood purchased directly from  the fisherman operating a day boat means that you are accessing the freshest and highest quality seafood.  Additionally, supporting seafood harvesters directly ensures that local small family-operated fishing communities will be able to compete with large processors and maintain traditional Maine coastal communities. Buying directly from fishermen ensures YOU a fresh product and ensures the fishermen receives a  fair wage for his or her labor.  Beyond that you are eating something  that is all natural and truly organic! BUY LOCAL!!!


Captain Dana Black 
Dana is a sixth  generation native Maine fishermen who grew up in the small town of  Brooksville, Maine.  He began fishing on offshore boats out of Stonington with  his father when he was three years old.  He has spent his life on the water up and down the East Coast  of New England. He has been offshore and inshore scalloping, lobstering, gill netting, diving, fish dragging, and shrimping- whatever could get him out on the  ocean.  In  2012 he became a boat builder of sorts and completed the restoration of his  40' Webber Cove boat. In 2024, the boat is still going strong! His heart is on the water behind the wheel of this old scallop dragger.  He fishes for scallops from a variety of local harbors  from  December - March (usually Naskeag Pt, Bucks Harbor, Castine, or Blue Hill) depending on the weather and which areas  the state of Maine has allowed to be open for fishing. Most of the scallops he catches are caught in the waters surrounding the Blue Hill Pennisula. From May - October he fishes for lobster and menhaden in Blue Hill Bay.  In the spring he does some halibut fishing and sells his catch whole to those who order in advance. He enjoys steaming out of the harbor on cold still winter mornings with sea smoke lifting to reveal the Camden hills and watching the sunrise over the the granite mountaintops of Acadia National  Park. He is an active participant and attends industry  meetings and public hearings throughout the year to make sure the wisdom and  knowledge of the fisherman is heard and hopes it is considered and used by  administrators and scientists as they make and revise regulations to conserve  and protect the scallop resource he values and loves so dearly. For a decade he operated Spencer Pond Camps in the Moosehead Region while commuting to fish full time and raising two young children "unplugged and off the grid."  He is also a Registered Maine Guide operating  scenicshotmaineguideservice.com  as his schedule permits across Maine and particular the Moosehead and North Maine Woods areas.
Click here to see a video of Dana "juggling jobs" at camp and on the ocean

Dana Black hauling a lobster trap

F/V Captain Morgan
Single owner-operated vessel.  You can feel good knowing you are supporting a Maine family preserve their fishing heritage and keeping the vibrant coastal culture of Maine alive. The F/V Captain Morgan is a fully restored scallop dragger.  She has been a scallop dragger for her entire career on the ocean and is a piece of our Blue Hill Peninsula's history. Growing up in  Brooksville, Dana often drove by what was then called the "Marie C III" admiring  her lines in the water as she sat moored in Weir Cove in Cape Rosier.  In 1978 she was built in Blue Hill,  she was labeled as the 1st boat  out of the 40' Webber Cove Hull mold. She spent the 80's fishing in the Gulf  of Maine and often returned home "loaded to the gills" with scallops; seagulls trailing behind her. She is rigged to fish "off the side" and a winch and pulley system is used to haul the drag back in and dump the contents on the dumping  mat in the stern of the boat. Early quotes on her performance from her Captain after her restoration "The old gal certainly hasn't forgotten what  it's all about, she was made to scallop!"