Scallop Capital of the World

Digby and the Bay of Fundy have earned the title of Scallop Capital of the World since pioneering the industry in the early 1920s. In 1995, the scallop industry adopted a quota management system, balancing science and industry recommendations for annual fishing.

The Digby Drag, used to collect scallops, involves a bar with nine drags attached by chains, towed across the ocean floor for 20 to 30 minutes. Once hoisted aboard, the scallops are sorted, shucked by hand, and stored on ice until the vessel returns to port. Depending on the weather, vessels may spend up to seven days at sea.

Scallops, a family of bivalves...

Scallops are found in all the world's oceans but never in fresh water. Unique among bivalves, many scallop species are "free-living," capable of rapid swimming and migration across the ocean floor. They mostly reside on sandy substrates and can escape predators like starfish by swiftly clapping their shells together for jet propulsion. Scallops possess a well-developed nervous system and a ring of simple eyes around the edge of their mantles.