Wildlife Fact Sheet

Sea Scallop

Placopecten magellanicus

Lifespan | 20 years or more
Habitat | Sandy or gravelly spots on the ocean floor, about 20-110 meters deep.
Range | Western Atlantic Ocean, from the Mid-Atlantic United States to Canada.
Preferred Food | Scallops are filter feeders and filter plankton out of the water.

About

Sea scallops are one of the most valuable fisheries in the United States. They are invertebrates (meaning they don’t have backbones) in the phylum Mollusca, a category that also includes snails, sea slugs, octopuses, mussels and oysters. Within the phylum, sea scallops are part of class Bivalvia, which includes animals with hinged two-part shells made of calcium carbonate. You might have seen bivalve shells washing up on the shore on your last beach trip.

Sea scallops can swim by quickly opening and closing their shells, allowing them to escape from predators. They also open their shells to filter plankton out of the seawater for food—the tiny organisms get caught in the scallop’s mucus, then tiny hairs called cilia move the food towards the mouth.

Did You Know?

Female sea scallops can produce hundreds of millions of eggs in one year! They reproduce through a method called spawning, which is where males and females release eggs and sperm into the water column where they combine.

Get Ocean Updates in Your Inbox

Sign up with your email and never miss an update.

This field is hidden when viewing the form
Name(Required)
By providing your email address, you consent to receive emails from Ocean Conservancy.
Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy


This field is hidden when viewing the form
Email Opt-in: Selected(Required)

Fast Facts

  • Sea Scallop
  • Sea Scallop