Known as the “Digby drag,” this rock dredge consists of a dozen metal chain-link baskets with a cumulative width of 16 feet (5 metres). It is attached to a tow bar by a cable that allows the dredge to be lowered and towed along the rocky bottom of scallop beds. The dredge is towed at low speed for about 20 minutes and then hauled up. The contents of the baskets are dumped onto a sorting deck fitted to the back of the vessel. Crew sort through the large rocks and pebbles to find scallops. The shellfish are shucked aboard the vessel and stored on ice in burlaps sacks. Unwanted species are returned to the ocean.
Scallop vessels average about 45 feet (13.7 metres) long. In Scallop Fishing Area 22 in the Northumberland Strait, there are 191 licenses. Some 130 of these are fishermen from NewBrunswick and 61 from Prince Edward Island. Only about 60 to 70 licences are actively fished each year.