Scallops Will Be Served During the Apocalypse

Yeah, the planet is fucked. We highly doubt that you need to be told again, but our air is getting less and less breathable, our soil is getting less and less fertile, and our water—well, don't even get us started on our water.

We're eating some species to extinction (sorry, pangolins), and watching as others overpopulate and kill off our precious avocado supply. And overfishing—combined with rampant pollution—is worsening, inching ever-closer towards a dark future for our oceans and our own food sources.

But if there's one type of seafood that climate change will have to pry out of our cold dead hands, it will be the scallop. At least, that's what scientists are currently trying to ensure. You can take our lives, and you can maybe even take our freedom, but we'll be damned if there aren't any seared scallops with which to top our fettuccine.

According to a paper released May 6 in PLoS One by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the scallop population have taken decades to stabilize after being under the "brink of collapse" for two solid decades. Now a $559 million industry, the fishery seems to be in the clear, but scientists and environmental groups are concerned that some of the oceanic symptoms of climate change—such as warmer, more acidic waters—could place the beloved bivalves back under threat.

As a result, researchers from the WHOI are teaming up with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service and Ocean Conservancy to ensure that even if Earth goes down kicking and screaming, we will have hotate.

The researchers have create a computer program that can simulate and toggle factors that could impact the scallop population, such as oceanic conditions, scallop reproduction and population management, and economic impacts. The program can help the team make predictions about how environmental factors will play into the existing supply and then distribute that information to the fishing industry and other groups.

The model will be implemented as an interactive web resource that will hopefully prove helpful to users who are interested in the potential future of scallops both from environmental and market perspectives. Report co-author Sarah Cooley from Ocean Conservancy says, "Because this is a high-value fishery that's not in crisis, we have the luxury of planning ahead for future challenges. This way, we can help sustain the fishery and the communities that depend on it for income and jobs."

So how's the future looking for the tasty mollusks? Well, not great—harvests and scallop sizes may be in the decline over the next few decades as carbon dioxide emissions rise. But it's not a sure thing, and the information provided by the program can be used to improve population management and ensure the survival of the supply.

After all, better to keep an eye on scallops now than to wake up and realize that we've been left with nothing to sear. Even if doom is inevitable, it hopefully comes with a little bit of shellfish.