Sailing for Scallops with Dylan Wallace

By Rebecca Settar

Inspired by J. Clinton Andrews’ 32-year-old paperback entitled Fishing Around Nantucket, Dylan Wallace decided to return to his native roots with a day on the water, scalloping by sailboat.  Just before this year’s scallop season wrapped up at the end of March, and with the use of Tobias Glidden’s 19-foot catboat and two dredges borrowed from commercial scalloper Sean Fitzgibbon, Dylan enjoyed his first official and licensed scallop fishing voyage and sat down to tell us at the Nantucket Shellfish Association all about it.

NSA:  What exactly inspired you to fish by sailboat?

Dylan:  Reading this book Fishing Around Nantucket with my friend Tobias Glidden, there is a section on scalloping by sailboat. It says that traditionally in the 1800’s, fishermen used their sailboats to bring tourists to Coatue for picnics and other beach activities, but in the winter these sailboats were used for scalloping. It was especially useful when fuel was too expensive, and the book says that Charlie Sayle, Sr. was probably the last one to scallop this way. I grew up sailing on Nantucket; it was a large part of growing up here.  My brother and I learned how to sail on a 19” wooden sailboat built by the Ottison family.   In fact, as an adult, my Thursday night hobie cat racing group is always the highlight of my summer. I’m really interested in history, and enjoying the island for what it is.

Over the past two years, I’ve worked on getting my commercial scalloping license, and I finally got it right before Christmas of 2021. Tobias and I learned a lot, gleaning some info from the book and also from my time apprenticing under Sean [Fitzgibbon]. It was kinda cool that that was the first time I went out on my own as a licensed scalloper. 

NSA:  How did it go?

Dylan:  It was a beautiful day. We had to figure out how it all works; it’s not as easy as turning the engine on and going the direction you want to go. You have to follow the wind. The sailboat does have a little three cylinder diesel inboard engine, so it’s safe out there, and if anything happens, we can motor in. All in all, we probably did four tows and got about a box of scallops, which, considering how many scallops are out there right now, I think we did really well.

NSA:  What were the challenges you noticed when fishing by sailboat?

Dylan: Tobias managed the sail and rudder while I dropped the dredges, one on each side.  We learned to luff the sail while hand hauling them back in.  Of course wind direction dictates a lot of what you can do.  Overall, it was a great experience. It was so quiet, and really, really peaceful.  Normally you have all the engines going. Also, hardly anyone else is out on the water right now, all the moorings are out of the water, and it was just us and the ferry boats coming in and out.

NSA:  How healthy did the harbor look on your sailboat scalloping excursion?

Dylan:  There was a fair amount of seed in the usual places. Having snorkeled for scallops in the harbor for years, I know what the floor of the harbor looks like, and there were parts of it that were healthy but definitely other spots that are suffering. So much of this is about educating people. I think that’s the benefit of the Nantucket Shellfish Association. It’s really important to educate our visitors about the importance of the health of the harbor, and the ways in which we can all do our part to keep it healthy.  I think the Shellfish Association is keeping the conversation going around harbor health; Nantucket scalloping may never be what it used to be, but with the Shellfish Association, we have a chance of the bay scallop fishery surviving.