Historical background
This commercially valuable Pacific Asian low-boreal scallop species supported substantial fisheries until the 1930s; then stocks diminished mainly through over-exploitation. Capture fisheries production appears to have peaked in the mid-1930s when 80 000 tonnes (shell-on) were landed in Japan. At about the same time, the Russian Yesso scallop population along the coast of Primorye was estimated at about 40 million, inhabiting an area of about 16 000 ha. Regional catches declined dramatically thereafter, falling to 6 000 tonnes in Japan in 1968. The development of off-bottom culture, supported by wild seed capture after 1945 led to a sustained upsurge in production, which continued until the year 2000. Since then annual production has stabilised at 1.1-1.2 million tonnes. China and Japan are the major producers, together accounting for over 1.1 million tonnes in 2003.