The 2026/27 Alaska weathervane scallop fishery opened July 1. The waters around Kodiak are home to nearly half the state’s total harvest, but there wasn’t exactly a rush of boats leaving the harbor to fish for them.
Weathervane scallops are the largest species of scallop in the world, and the only scallop species on the west coast that has a substantial commercial fishery. According to an Alaska Department of Fish and Game notice published last month, fishermen can harvest nearly 400,000 shucked pounds in the state this year, and nearly 200,000 around Kodiak. Allocations for weathervane scallops are the same as they were last year.
That harvest level is fairly small compared to the millions of pounds fishermen can catch of other species, like halibut and salmon. And the poundage isn’t the only part of the fishery that is smaller than the rest.
“I would put scallops in the end of the spectrum that is really kind of off people’s radar," said Nat Nichols, an area biologist with Fish and Game. "There are two vessels that fish scallops in the state of Alaska.”
Both of these vessels are homeported in Kodiak. Weathervane scallops only live in the waters of Alaska, so they’re also the only two boats that fish for them in the world.
Nichols explained that this is because of permitting. The weathervane scallop fishery is co-managed by the federal government and the state, meaning that participating boats need different permits. And Nichols said scallop fishing gear is very specialized, so to be profitable, fishermen need to fish both federal and state waters.
“This is a dredge gear fishery," he said. "There’s not a lot of boats that have 15 foot wide New Bedford scallop dredges.”
There are nine federal permits total. Of those nine, Nichols said seven are owned by a cooperative called Alaska Weathervane Seafoods. The other two are owned on the East coast and aren’t fished.
Last year, Nichols said the two boats harvested 317,085 of shucked scallops, which was 57,615 pounds off of the total limit. And for this fishery, that’s a big deal. Before the co-op was founded in 2000, fishermen struggled to avoid hitting tanner crab bycatch limits, and oftentimes the fishery closed early.
But by forming a co-op instead of competing for scallops, permitholders reduced crab bycatch, allowing the fishery to stay open for longer. Nichols said parts of the fishery have closed to bycatch only twice in the past ten years.
According to Fish and Game, the scallop season usually ends before October.
