The Laws
The State laws regulating the fishery were made for the benefit of the industry and for the preservation of the “seed” scallop, which is the only requirement necessary for insuring the future supply.
Each town has charge over its scallop fishery, under the general shellfish act of 1880, which entrusted all regulation of the shellfisheries to the selectmen of the towns. The town laws governing the scallop fishery are by far the most satisfactory of the shellfish laws of the towns. Although in many respects beneficial, they have certain disadvantages.
The main disadvantage of the town laws is found in the jealousy of neighboring towns. One town may make a law to oppose another town, and will often injure its own interests thereby. In this connection the condition at Dennis, during the winter of 1904-05, was an instance. As scallops were remarkably abundant, the town made by-laws intended to exclude from its scallop fisheries the residents of other towns. At the close of the scalloping season, when the ice came, the scallops were still abundant. The inhabitants of the town thought they could get the rest next season. They did not know that the scallop does not live two years. The next year not a single scallop of that set was to be found; they had died. If other scallopers had been allowed to go there, thousands of dollars could have been saved, and many scallopers given employment. This one case illustrates the disadvantages of town jealousy; and Dennis is by no means to blame, as it merely protected itself against the similar restrictions of neighboring Cape Cod towns.
The town laws which benefit the scallop industry are made each year according to the condition of the industry. Edgartown and Nantucket have perhaps the best-governed scallop industries. Laws requiring licenses, regulating the opening of the season and restricting at proper times the catch, so as to get the best market prices instead of overstocking the market when the prices are low, are to be recommended on account of their benefit to the scallopers.