Weight Of Scallops

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Bearbait

New
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Location
Oregon
i have never dove for scallops but will do so soon. how do you deal with the weight of the bag of scallops when scuba diving? Do you just hold it in hand and add air to bc as you need to? thanks.
 
that is what i figured but i have read all i can find and watched all the vids on rock scallops and have never seen it mentioned.
 
They are my favorite, but usually I don't find that many, and then there is day limit for recreational harvest.
 
Lift bag is a good idea. A dSMB can work, too. And never attach the catch bag to yourself, but carry it in your hand. Even if many catch bags have a D-ring which seems very nice for attaching the bag to the rig.

Over here, scallop harvesting is quite popular, and people have drowned because they were weighted down by a full catch bag and wouldn't/couldn't drop it when needed
 
I clip the bag to my chest, always keeping the bag open or a bolt snap on each handle, clipped off to yourself, when your ready to ascend, send up your catch with a lift bag and reel then swim on up.
 
I have a few methods of dealing with a heavy catch bag and it all depends on the conditions and if it's a boat or shore dive.

If I'm boat diving I'll carry the catch bag around with me and when it begins to get too heavy to drag around I'll clip on a lift bag inflated slightly to take some of the weight off. At the end of the dive I can either shoot it to the surface and ascend or I'll put enough air in the bag that it still is on the bottom but takes some of the weight off. Then I'll ascend on the line and haul the bag up. Once it gets a few feet off the bottom the air will expand making it easy to haul up. I see that you're in the PNW so this isn't applicable to you, but when diving with one of the local boats by me (see my signature) we don't use any lift bags but tie the flag line to the bag and haul the bags up using a lobster pot hauler.

If I'm shore diving I'll use the lift bag trick to take some of the weight off and make it easier to swim the bag in with me. Alternately you could send it up your flag line and tow it around on the surface but that's a lot of weight to have overhead in case the bag deflates.
 

Back
Top Bottom