Scallop fishermen in the Northeast got some good news today, when regional fisheries managers rolled back sharp cuts in the catch limit. The New England Fishery Management Council reversed an earlier decision and voted not to impose restrictions on scallop fishing proposed last November.

The council had initially refused to reconsider the new rules, which include cutting annual fishing days for this year from 38 to 29 to reduce the risk over-fishing, and to protect certain species from becoming bycatch. But after meeting this month with Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, the council agreed to reconsider the issue.

At their meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, council members voted 10-5 after coming under pressure from politicians and fishing groups.

"The council heard the fishing industry talk about loss of market share even in the short-term, and what a serious problem that presents to them," says spokeswoman Pat Fiorelli. She says council members were swayed after spending the morning listening to industry comment.

In the event, she says, most council members decided it was not worth the cost, after hearing from scallopers that the cuts could mean losses of up to $300,000 per boat. "The loss over the long-term when you compare the two alternatives isn't as dramatic to them as the hit they would take in the single year this year," Fiorelli says.

"To compare it to landings for last year, the loss to the entire economy -- the Northeast economy -- is about $200 million, over $200 million, says economist Dan Georgianna, a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth's School of Marine Science and Technology.

He welcomed the council's decision to reverse its position on cutting back scallop limits, and says he sees no evidence that would support any concern about over-fishing. "The evidence that I've seen says that the stock is quite high. I think quite frankly cutting the scallop catch doesn't make economic sense to me," Georgianna says.

The New England scallop fishery has, for the most part, says Georgianna, been pretty healthy for last ten years, thanks in part to a successful fishing management policy which has involved closing certain areas to fishing to let stocks rebuild.

Togue Braun, scallop expert at Maine's Department of Marine Resources, agrees, and she's hoping a similar policy in Maine's coastal waters will help revive the state's own scallop fishery, which has been in poor shape for a number of years. "We actually implemented some closures along the coast of Maine late last year, they were implemented in September to the first scallop fishery season where those closures have been in place, and we're hoping that that will result in a resurgence of the Maine scallop fishery," Braun says.

"In Maine we've definitely noticed a decilne in our scallop stocks," says Terry Gray, who dives for scallops Downeast. Like most Maine scallopers, he works only in coastal waters. He's noticed a decline in his average daily catch go from around 45 pounds a day to around 30. "Over the last 10 years people's catches have pretty much dropped off. There's been a lot of people that have just given it up and found winter-time jobs to do instead of going scallop fishing."

ot everyone supports the NEFMC's decision to allow scallop fishermen more days at sea. David Allison is with Oceana, the environmental group that's been strongly behind the November proposals to cut back on fishing. He says he's worried about the impact on the ecosystem - in particular the issue of bycatch. "The decision is going to result in an increase in the bycatch of yellowtail flounder in the scallop fishery."

And this, he says, should be of concern to Maine's groundfishermen. "This is an important fishery for the groundfish fishery in Maine, and this could lead to restrictions in 2011 and future years in the amount of yellowtail flounder that can be caught."

In addition to flounder, says Allison, environmentalists are worried about the damage that can be done by fishing gear to loggerhead sea turtles, which are an endangered species.