Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/514590
this story comes out, I guarantee there will be half a dozen boats parked right here." Bates has favorite locations from Magnolia to Nahant, which he guards both to protect his livelihood and protect the fishery. Few people actually hand-harvest scallops any longer, and state regulations allow collecting of mollusks that are much smaller than what Bates himself will take. "I went to public hearings to try to get the [state-regulated] shell size increased," he says ruefully, adding that much of the state and federal regulation these days seems to favor large-scale dragging opera- tions out of New Bedford, rather than small fishermen. In fact, Bates gave up his federal license, and the 98 | JULY 2015 nshoremag.com BY JEANNE O'BRIEN COFFEY Ray Bates has spent his life collecting sustenance from the sea. Ray Bates is very protective of his best spots. A lifelong scallop diver and lobsterman, he never shucks near his dive site. And before talking to Northshore magazine, he secured an agreement from writer and pho- Diving for Delicacies photographs by Jared Charney in-depth LIVE tographer to excise any reference to where he harvests his prize catch. "Write that we went down to Nahant," the North Shore native says with a laugh, on his boat some- where offshore. "Otherwise, when Ray Bates dives for scallops off North Shore's seacoast.