After nearly two decades off the market, a small, tasty scallop that was once a symbol of Puget Sound’s thriving and diverse seafood sector is making a comeback, albeit in small numbers.
The man behind the resurgence of the wild-caught pink scallop, Nick Jones, who raises shellfish and does land farming from his Jones Family Farms on Lopez Island, is hoping those small numbers will be a big marketing draw.
“We’re calling them the rarest commercially available seafood in the world,” he said. “Beluga sturgeon caviar is produced at about a rate of a half a million pounds a year, and with pink scallops, between the U.S. and Canada, I think we’re going to max out at something like 200,000 pounds.” …