December 5, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — For such tiny critters, northern shrimp can kick up quite a storm among fisheries regulators.
Meeting in Portland last week, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section voted to continue the moratorium on shrimp fishing in the Gulf of Maine for another year. First imposed in 2013, the moratorium will remain in force for at least one more year.
That means no shrimp fishing season in 2018, at least for Maine fishermen.
Commission members from Massachusetts and New Hampshire also voted to allow the harvest of 13.3 metric tons (about 30,000 pounds) of shrimp next year for research purposes. Details of the research program will be determined later this month.
In an email, Department of Marine Resources spokesman Jeff Nichols said Commissioner Patrick Keliher “was very disappointed” with the proposal and voted against the research set-aside.
The 13.3-metric ton research quota was considerably smaller than in the past. Between January and March of this year, eight trawlers from Maine and one each from Massachusetts and New Hampshire were allowed to fish for up to a total of 53 metric tons (about 117,000 pounds) for research purposes. The boats caught a total of 32.6 metric tons (71,871 pounds), or 62 percent of the research set-aside.
Read the full story at the Ellsworth American