NOAA Fisheries has awarded 14 new projects through its 2026 Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside Program, supporting research ranging from expanded Georges Bank surveys to artificial intelligence, scallop recruitment, and mortality.

Rather than providing federal funding directly, the Research Set-Aside Program allocates a portion of the scallop harvest to researchers, who work with commercial fishermen to harvest the scallops and generate funding for their projects.

This year, researchers were awarded more than 1.5 million pounds of Atlantic sea scallops. At an estimated value of $16 per pound, NOAA Fisheries expects the allocation to generate more than $25 million, with approximately $6 million supporting research and the remaining $19 million going to participating harvesters.

The projects address research priorities identified by the New England Fishery Management Council and include expanded survey coverage on Georges Bank, AI-assisted processing of survey imagery, and continued industry-driven data collection. Two projects will also examine opportunities to enhance scallop resources.

Several projects put commercial fishermen directly at the center of data collection and management efforts. The Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance will develop and test a voluntary Scallop Seed Avoidance Program designed to use near real-time, industry-reported data to identify concentrations of juvenile scallops and help the fleet avoid those areas.

The Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation will continue its Scallop Research Fleet program, through which fishermen collect year-round information on shell height, meat volume and reproductive condition. The organization will also continue development of ScallApp, a smartphone application used by the industry to collect information on scallop disease, meat quality, and reproductive condition.

Other projects will investigate unexplained scallop mortality in the Elephant Trunk Area, examine the effects of temperature on scallop survival, test scallop recruitment enhancement in Maine and New Hampshire, and use computer vision to process HabCam survey imagery.

The research supports one of the country’s most valuable commercial fisheries. In 2025, U.S. commercial scallop landings totaled 23.1 million pounds valued at $417 million, according to NOAA Fisheries.

NOAA Fisheries currently operates research set-aside programs for both Atlantic sea scallops and monkfish.