The industry lasted until Jan. 1, 1908, when the boats were hauled up for winter. The total estimate for the season is 20,000 bushels, or 12,000 gallons (unsoaked), valued at $15,720. The largest daily catch recorded for one boat was 72 bushels.
The principal market is New York, though part of the catch is sent to New Bedford. The price varied from $1.15 to $3 per gallon. The scallopers claim that they do not soak the scallops, as the "eye" is large enough to sell well without increasing its size. Undoubtedly soaking is done to some extent. The scallops are large, opening about 3½ quarts per bushel.
Twelve hundred dollars are invested in gear and $15,000 in boats, which vary from $300 to $1,300 in value.
Licenses costing $1 are required by the selectmen of every scalloper.
Here again we find the old tale of the decline of a once prosperous industry, and new enthusiasm in the success of the 1907-08 season. The 1906-07 season was an improvement over the previous one, when eight licenses were issued, allowing a maximum of 1,605 bushels to be taken. In previous years no licenses were given, as there were no scallops.
Brewster.
Scalloping at Brewster can hardly be called an industry. Here the primitive method of picking up the scallops on the exposed flats at low tide is alone used. The scallops are washed by the heavy seas on the flats, and can be gathered by men, women and children when the tide goes down. Somewhere in the deeper water is a bed of scallops, but in 1905 no one had been able to locate it. In 1905 only one man made a business of gathering and shipping these scallops. He averaged 2 bushels per tide, going down with a team and carting them to his house, where he opened them. All shipments were made to Boston, at an average price of $1.75 to $2. The people pick up many for home use.
Chatham.
The town of Chatham, situated at the elbow of Cape Cod, possesses abundant facilities for all the shore fisheries. For the past twenty-five years the scallop fishery has held almost equal rank with the lobster and cod fisheries, for which Chatham is noted, and has in many years furnished employment when other fishing had failed.