2 Scallop Permits on 1 Boat? NOAA Wants Your Say

America’s most valuable wild scallop fishery is asking a question that could reshape how its boats work: should one vessel be allowed to fish two permits? NOAA Fisheries has opened public scoping on permit stacking in the Atlantic sea scallop fishery — and the clock is running. Five public hearings are scheduled between Tuesday, 17 November and Monday, 14 December 2026, and written comments close on Monday, 4 January 2027. If you fish scallops, own a scallop permit, work in a scallop port, or study how fisheries manage fleet capacity, this is the window to be heard.

This is not a done deal. NOAA is at the scoping stage — the earliest, most open stage of a rulemaking — asking whether the Secretary of Commerce should even develop an amendment to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan. The answer will depend on what fishermen, port communities and the public say in the next eight weeks.

NOAA scallop permit stacking at a glance

Particular	Detail
Proposal	Allow two Limited Access scallop permits in the same category, under common ownership or control, to be combined (“stacked”) on a single vessel
Deciding authority	Secretary of Commerce, on NOAA Fisheries’ recommendation — a potential Secretarial amendment to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan
Notice published	Federal Register, 3 November 2026 (91 FR 69243), Docket No. NOAA-NMFS-2026-3136
Written comment deadline	Monday, 4 January 2027
Public hearings	Five — Boston (17 Nov), webinar (23 Nov), Barnegat Light NJ (3 Dec), webinar (7 Dec), New Bedford (14 Dec)
Origin	Public comments received under Executive Order 14276, Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness
Fishery at stake	Atlantic sea scallop — the largest wild scallop fishery in the world; 2025 landings 23.1 million lb worth $417 million
Official sources	Federal Register notice 91 FR 69243; NOAA Fisheries announcement, 3–4 November 2026

What “permit stacking” actually means

Today, each limited-access scallop permit sits on its own vessel, and each vessel gets the same days-at-sea allocation for its permit category. Under stacking, an owner who holds two permits in the same category — full-time with full-time, for example — could put both permits on one boat. That boat would then be allowed to fish the allocations of both permits.

The second vessel would stop fishing. NOAA’s own words explain the logic: the vessel “would be permitted to fish the allocations for both permits, which would reduce business expenses associated with maintaining multiple vessels with low days-at-sea allocations.” In plain language, it is cheaper to run one boat hard than to keep two boats tied up for a handful of fishing days each.

That is the heart of the problem. For fishing year 2026, full-time limited-access vessels were allocated just 36 open-area days at sea under Framework Adjustment 40, effective 1 April 2026 — and no access-area trips at all. Part-time vessels got 14.4 days. When a boat can fish only 36 days a year, the fixed costs of insurance, maintenance, dockage and crew do not shrink to match. Owners with two permits are effectively paying twice to run two boats part-time. Stacking would let them consolidate the fishing effort onto one hull.

Two things stacking is not, and the distinction matters. It is not leasing: the proposal under discussion would transfer permits between vessels of common ownership, not rent out days-at-sea to strangers. And it is not an increase in catch: the total allocation stays the same — the same two permits’ worth of days, fished from one deck instead of two.

Why this is happening now

The trigger is Executive Order 14276, the Trump administration’s order on Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness, which directed federal agencies to cut regulatory burdens on domestic fishermen and improve profitability. NOAA invited public comments under that order; fishermen and industry groups raised excess capacity in the scallop fleet — too many boats chasing too few fishing days — and NOAA’s July 2026 Regional Priorities guidance to the fishery management councils set the direction. The scallop stacking scoping is one of the agency-level actions that followed.

The Federal Register notice is blunt about the underlying condition: “Excess capacity remains in the limited access scallop fleet.” That sentence has a long history. The limited-access system itself was created by Amendment 4 in 1994 precisely to control capacity, and it banned combining permits and transferring days-at-sea between vessels. Stacking would reverse part of that 32-year-old prohibition — which is why NOAA is scoping it publicly rather than deciding it behind closed doors.

New Bedford, Massachusetts — the port at the centre of this fishery — has already weighed in. In October 2025, Mayor Jon Mitchell wrote to NOAA urging the agency to advance a “targeted” version of permit stacking, calling the status quo “untenable”, while insisting on four guardrails: expanding the available biomass, keeping the 5 percent ownership cap “sacrosanct”, preventing the abandonment of idle vessels at public facilities, and genuine engagement with smaller fishing and shoreside businesses before any rule is final.

The five hearings — dates, places, times

Date	Format and venue	Time (local)
Tuesday, 17 November 2026	In person — Hilton Garden Inn Boston Logan Airport, 100 Boardman St., Boston, MA 02128	4:00–6:00 p.m. (begins 30 minutes after the Joint Scallop Committee and Advisory Panel meeting ends)
Monday, 23 November 2026	Webinar (online)	11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
Thursday, 3 December 2026	In person — Barnegat Light Volunteer Fire Department, 907 Central Ave, Barnegat Light, NJ 08006	4:00–6:00 p.m.
Monday, 7 December 2026	Webinar (online)	6:00–8:00 p.m.
Monday, 14 December 2026	In person — University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) East, 836 South Rodney French Blvd., New Bedford, MA 02744	1:00–3:00 p.m.

Registration is required for the hearings — NOAA’s announcement links to registration pages for each session, and the full scoping document and meeting details are on NOAA Fisheries’ scallop stacking page. If you plan to attend in person, register early: the Boston session follows a council committee meeting the same day, so its start time is approximate.

How to submit a comment — step by step

Written comments carry the same weight as spoken testimony, and they can come from anyone — you do not need to be a US citizen or a permit holder to comment. Here is exactly how:

Online (fastest): Go to regulations.gov, type NOAA-NMFS-2026-3136 in the search box, click the “Comment” icon, fill in the required fields and enter or attach your comment.
By post: Address written comments to Emily Keiley, 55 Great Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930, quoting docket NOAA-NMFS-2026-3136.
Deadline: Comments must be received by Monday, 4 January 2027. Comments sent by any other method, to any other address, or after the deadline may not be considered.
Anonymity: NMFS accepts anonymous comments — enter “N/A” in the required fields if you wish to remain anonymous. But note that everything submitted becomes part of the public record and is generally posted on regulations.gov without change, including any personal information you volunteer.
What to say: The most useful comments are specific. Say whether you support or oppose stacking, what it would do to your business or port, and which safeguards you want — the scoping stage is precisely when those safeguards are decided.

Safeguards under consideration

No rule has been drafted yet, so nothing here is final. But the scoping coverage and the debate so far point to five safeguards that are on the table:

Safeguard	What it would mean
Same category only	Stacking only within the same permit category — a full-time permit stacks with a full-time permit, not with a part-time one
Permanent stacks	Once stacked, the permits stay combined — no de-stacking to split them again later
Common ownership	Both permits must be under common ownership or control; this is a consolidation of your own permits, not a market in permits
Baseline limits kept	Vessel baseline limits (size and horsepower rules that cap how big a replacement vessel can be) remain in force
5 percent ownership cap kept	No individual or entity may own more than 5 percent of limited-access scallop permits — a cap in place since Amendment 4 in 1994, aimed at preventing consolidation

The 5 percent cap is the flashpoint. Supporters of stacking say it already prevents any one owner from dominating the fishery. Critics worry that stacking is a first step toward permit leasing and commodification — the very thing the cap was designed to stop. The New Bedford mayor’s letter put it plainly: the cap “must remain sacrosanct” and the council should stay “leery of allowing stacking rules to slide down a slippery slope toward open-ended leasing”. If you comment, this is the issue to take a position on.

What is at stake for the fishery

The Atlantic sea scallop fishery is the most valuable wild scallop fishery on Earth. Our earlier report on the fishery’s research programme recorded 2025 landings of 23.1 million pounds worth $417 million, and the stock itself is in good shape — the Framework 40 decision document states plainly that “the Atlantic sea scallop stock is not overfished, and overfishing is not occurring”. This is not a conservation crisis. It is an economics problem: a healthy stock, a rebuilt fishery, and a fleet that has more boats than fishing days.

That combination is exactly why the decision is difficult. Stacking would cut costs for multi-permit owners and could keep more of the fleet’s value in the ports that depend on it — New Bedford most of all. But every vessel taken out of service is a crew without a boat, a dock without a tenant and a shoreside business with one fewer customer. The hearings in Boston, Barnegat Light and New Bedford are where that trade-off gets argued in public, by the people who live with it.

The timeline after scoping is deliberately open-ended. If the Secretary of Commerce decides an amendment is warranted, NOAA will develop the amendment — with further public comment at the proposed-rule stage. If the scoping comments run against it, the idea stops here. That is why the 4 January 2027 deadline matters: at scoping, silence counts as indifference, not opposition.

What Indian readers can take from this

India has no equivalent of a public scoping process for fisheries rules — and that is the real lesson here. Three features of this American process are worth noting for anyone who follows Indian fisheries policy:

Consultation before drafting: NOAA asks the public whether to write a rule at all, before a single line of regulation exists. Indian fisheries notifications typically arrive as finished drafts with short comment windows, if any.
Capacity is managed, not ignored: The US scallop fleet has been under a limited-access, days-at-sea system since 1994, with an ownership cap that has survived for 32 years. India’s marine fisheries still struggle with open access and uncounted effort — the problem NOAA is now fine-tuning is one India has barely begun to measure.
Data first, decision second: The 36-days-at-sea allocation for 2026 came out of Framework 40, a council process with published alternatives (24, 32, 34, 36 and 38 days were all on the table) and a scientific analysis of each. The number was argued in public, with the reasoning published.

For Indian students and researchers, the scoping document itself is a free case study in fisheries governance — how a rebuilt stock, excess capacity and a 5 percent ownership cap interact, and how a regulator tests a controversial idea in public before committing to it.

Frequently asked questions

Is permit stacking already allowed?
No. It is only under consideration. NOAA opened scoping on 3 November 2026; no amendment has been drafted and no rule has been proposed. The Secretary of Commerce will decide whether to proceed after the scoping comments are reviewed.

Who can comment — do I need to be American?
No. Anyone can submit a written comment through regulations.gov under docket NOAA-NMFS-2026-3136, and anonymous comments are accepted. The hearings are public, with two of the five held as webinars.

Would stacking increase the scallop catch?
No — under the proposal as described, the total allocation does not change. Two permits’ worth of days-at-sea would be fished from one vessel instead of two. The catch limit is set separately through the annual specifications process.

What happens after 4 January 2027?
NOAA reviews the scoping comments. If the Secretary decides an amendment is warranted, a draft amendment and proposed rule follow, with another public comment period. If not, the proposal ends at scoping.

Where is the fishery, and how big is it?
The Atlantic sea scallop fishery runs along the US east coast from Maine to Virginia. It landed 23.1 million pounds worth $417 million in 2025, making it the largest wild scallop fishery in the world. The stock is not overfished and overfishing is not occurring.