February 12, 2015 — Regulators are considering limiting entry into the Gulf of Maine for northern shrimp fishing, if and when the decimated stock rebounds enough to reopen the fishery, according to a document seeking public comment on the possible revisions to the region’s management plan.
The northern shrimp fishery, now closed for the second consecutive year because the state of the stock has fallen to its lowest level on record, remains an open-access fishery when open.
The revision in the draft amendment for the fishery’s management plan would change that by instituting a limited entry program that would “consider the appropriate number of participants in the fishery given biological, environmental and economic considerations,” according to a document from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.
The document, known as a public information document, is the first step in the process to amend the fishery’s management plan. That process, which is scheduled to extend into the winter of 2016, includes a number of hearings in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts to gather public comment.
Gloucester hearing
The Massachusetts hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, March 4, at 6 p.m. at the state Division of Marine Fisheries Annisquam River Station on Emerson Avenue in Gloucester.
The AFMSC closed the Gulf of Maine to shrimp fishing in 2014 and 2015 to protect the dwindling number of spawning females, affecting fishermen from Maine (who accounted for 83 percent of the landings in 2013), New Hampshire (11 percent) and Massachusetts (6 percent).
Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times