Rocks, pilings, and rock crevices. Juveniles free but adults are sessile. Grabs food with cilia, selects food with sorting apparatus, filter feeds. Spawn in April. The sexes are distinguished by gonad color.
Testes are white and ovaries are bright red.
As juveniles, scallop swims by clapping its two valves and spurting out jets of water on either side of its hinges. After the valve grows more than 1 inch, the right valve settles on a rock and the mantle secretes slimy material that fuses the scallop to the contour of the substrate. The Rock Scallop is highly prized as food, the single large abductor muscle being eaten either raw or fried. Heavy collection by clammers and divers has depleted the population in many areas.