But some members of the crew grumble that the technology will make it possible to wipe out the last hidden scallop beds.

The inner sound has commercial scallop beds and various fish and shellfish farms.

Dr. Peterson said the rays practically denude scallop beds during their end-of-summer southward migration along the Eastern seaboard.

While the bloom has faded, it might have ruined the restoration of the scallop beds undertaken after the brown tide first devastated them in 1985.

These snails are often found in association with the offshore Atlantic calico scallop beds, probably attracted by the abundant food.

The larvae are allowed to grow to a suitable size and are then released onto known natural scallop beds at densities of about six per square metre of sea floor.

The loss of eelgrass habitats, though serious, was only one of many factors affecting scallop beds.

Shoreline development hurts scallop beds.

In 2007 scallop beds along the west coast of Scotland were affected by a bloom which caused Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning (ASP).

The scallop beds at Pentland Firth, between Orkney and mainland Scotland, contained unacceptable levels of cadmium and were declared unfit for human consumption.