United States | News & Politics

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An hour before sunrise on the first day of scallop season in November, as he unwound the ropes, started the outboard motor and piloted the 25-foot fiberglass boat from an island cove into the open waters of Peconic Bay, Mr. Tehan knew just what he’d find.

Their offspring — hundreds of thousands of little shells — are taken back to the bay, where they supplement the wild population, and where their genetics hopefully will prove more tolerant, said Harrison Tobi, an aquaculture specialist at the extension.

Still, the latest die-off has caused only modest financial hardship: The commercial and recreational fishermen of Shelter Island learned years ago that you can’t depend on scallops.

Baymen then bring their catch to a licensed shop, where family and friends would drink beer, joke around and pry open scallop shells with wide knives, their blades kept dull to limit the risk of injury.

“You start a fire in the wood stove, and peoples’ wives and girlfriends show up and open scallops with you,” said John Tehan, 65, who makes his living during summer tourist season operating a charter fishing boat.

Mr. Tehan works three jobs, one as a captain on the North Ferry to Shelter Island, another as a building contractor and a third helping his wife run Flowers’ Edge, a florist in Cutchogue.

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