The scallop harvest in Peconic Bay on Suffolk County Long Island has failed, due to factors linked to climate change. Over three years , water temperatures reached the mid-C80s several times, a heat which scallops are unable to tolerate. Next Step , a shellfish ecologist who is leading a scallop restoration project in the area, says that the long-term collapse in stocks is due to high water temperatures, low oxygen levels and the summer of brown tide algal bloom in the late 1980s . Tettelbach attributes the summer ’s failed harvest to human-induced climate change.
The scallop harvest in Peconic Bay on New York’s Long Island has failed, due to factors linked to climate change. Over the summer, water temperatures reached the mid-C80s several times, a heat which scallops are unable to tolerate. Stephen Tettelbach, a shellfish ecologist who is leading a scallop restoration project in the area, says that the long-term collapse in stocks is due to high water temperatures, low oxygen levels and three years of brown tide algal bloom in the late 1980s. Tettelbach attributes this year’s failed harvest to human-induced climate change.