PORTLAND, Maine — March 13, 2013 — With their quota cut by 74 percent and warnings that the Gulf of Maine shrimp population was in bad shape due to warm ocean temperatures, fishermen expected this to be a rough shrimp season. But it’s turned out to be an even bigger bust than anybody anticipated.
The shrimp catch has been meager, resulting in a short supply for processors and higher prices for consumers. The season is on course for the smallest harvest in more than 30 years, and possibly since 1978 when the fishery was shut down altogether.
When regulators set the quota for this season, fishermen thought the 1.4 million-pound catch limit would be fished up quickly. Instead, the catch has been so paltry that regulators are now allowing boats to fish seven days a week instead of two they were initially allotted. They've also removed the 800-pound trip limit for shrimp trappers.
Gary Libby, a fisherman in Port Clyde, said he caught 800 pounds of the small, sweet shrimp on his best day this winter. Last year he averaged 2,000 pounds a day.
‘‘We were expecting it to be bad going in, but we weren’t expecting it to be as bad it was,’’ he said.
Shrimp provide a small but important fishery for New England fishermen each winter. About 90 percent of the annual harvest is caught by Maine boats, with New Hampshire and Massachusetts fishermen accounting for the rest.
The fishery historically has gone through boom-and-bust cycles, with the catch fluctuating sharply depending on the status of the shrimp population.
Read the full story by the Associated Press at The Boston Globe