Guy Grieve of Scotland's Ethical Shellfish Company talks King Scallops (VIDEO)

Potluck Video dives into the Dived Scallop industry.

Guy Grieve of Scotland's Ethical Shellfish Company sits down with Potluck Video to talk about scallop harvesting.  A craft that goes back to Ancient Greece, diving for scallops that lay at the seabed is  "The essential purity of it is just the same.  You search out these diamonds, in this case the King Scallop."

Scallops, which are commercially dredged, are harvested by dropping heavy, steel gear that has metal swords attached to baskets.  The gear then is dropped to the sea floor and dragged- destroying everything in its path while collecting the scallops.  

Science has proven that this process destroys all 3-dimensional life on the seabed.  "Which is fine for scallops," says Grieve, "that's why scallop dredging can continue so nicely because scallops just filter feed.  So, they're perfectly happy for the seabed life to be wiped entirely clean of everything but the plankton that they feed on... It's quite a controversial subject."

Dive fishing, which has been going on in Scotland for 40 years, involves divers searching for scallops using seabed sonar equipment on a boat and then diving at locations three to four times a day.

In terms of quality, dredged scallops are a "mass produced, bulk product" that are frequently frozen traded around the world as they are valuable commodities.  Dredged scallops will also have a grit to them as they are dragged along the seafloor during the harvesting process.  These scallops have to be shucked, soaked, and washed for a long time to get rid of that grit.

A dived scallop does not have that grit and therefore is more of a luxurious product.