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Too Crowded for Scallops?

Researcher Mary Carman recovered blades of sea grass and a lonely scallop covered with sea squirts, an invasive nuisance species, from Sengekontacket Pond on Martha’s Vineyard. Juvenile scallops dangle from eelgrass blades like holiday ornaments before they become free-swimming adults. Alarmed that they are now sharing space with sea squirts, Carman this summer began mapping their spread around the island and investigating if they are harming valuable eelgrass habitat.  Scallops use the grass as their preferred habitat.
(Photo by Amy Nevala, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)