The Virginia Institute of Marine Science will host a lecture on bay scallops at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 24, both in-person and online via Zoom, as part of its After Hours lecture series.

The bay scallop, Argopecten irradians, also called the Atlantic bay scallop, is a shellfish of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts and has a classic seashell shape, commonly used to represent the sea or coastal living. Despite this reverence as a symbol, bay scallop numbers have been declining along the Atlantic Coast since the 1980s, with the species being defined as functionally extinct from Virginia’s coastal bays since the 1930s.

Dr. Richard Snyder, director of the VIMS lab, will provide a presentation on the basic biology and ecology of the bay scallop, the history of its fishery and aquaculture use, and current work with the species at the ESL.

The lecture will take place in-person in the McHugh Auditorium on VIMS’s Gloucester Point campus. Face masks are currently required for all ...