PORTLAND, Maine — December 3, 2012 — Despite calls to shut down the shrimp fishery in 2013 because of fears it is being overfished, Maine fishermen will have their season — though a very abbreviated one.
The catch limit for shrimp trawlers in the Gulf of Maine will be reduced to 625 metric tons in the 2013 season, nearly a quarter of what it was this year, and boats will only be able to go out fishing on Mondays and Wednesdays. The season for trawlers will begin on Jan. 22, while the season for shrimp trappers will begin Feb. 5, with six landing days and an 800-pound limit.
The decision to limit the catch was made by the three-member Northern Shrimp Section of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission during a Monday afternoon meeting in Portland.
Six hundred and twenty-five metric tons is equal to nearly 1.4 million pounds. Given there are roughly 250 shrimp boats operating in the Gulf of Maine — about 225 of those are from Maine — that catch around 2,000 pounds a trip, that means the catch limit could be reached in a matter of days, said Angelo Ciocca, president of Nova Seafoods in Portland. Last season, fishermen received about 95 cents a pound for their shrimp catch.
“Six hundred and twenty-five is effectively no season,” Ciocca said. “It’s a nightmare.”
The decision by the panel was greeted with mixed feelings from the audience of about 50 people, consisting mostly of fishermen and seafood processors and dealers.
Gary Libby, a fisherman in Port Clyde and chairman of the Northern Shrimp Section’s Advisory Panel, said the season was “crumbs.” He and the Advisory Panel had recommended a catch limit of around 800 metric tons.
David Osier, owner of Osiers Seafood in South Bristol, stood up to address the Northern Shrimp Section, which consists of representatives from Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, after they made their decision. “I want to thank you for the season that you’ve given us,” he said. “We’ll be able to buy some groceries this winter, but that’s about it.”
Despite the sarcasm, most everyone agreed that a season — no matter how short — is better than no season at all, which is what the Northern Shrimp Technical Committee recommended in an 81-page analysis released Nov. 21.
“The season crafted for us guys in Port Clyde actually gives us something,” Libby said. “We were looking at nothing before that with the recommendation from the Technical Committee.”
Marshall Alexander, a fisherman from Biddeford who has been fishing for 46 years, has lived through previous shutdowns, the last being in the 1980s. He said the damage a moratorium does to a fishery is significant, as the processors and infrastructure that supports that fishery deteriorates. “What it cost to bring [the fishery] back is ungodly,” he said.
Next year’s season, though short, will keep at least the small processors busy providing shrimp to the local markets, which is important, he said. “To take Maine shrimp right off the menu would be devastating, because once they replace it with something else, you never get it back. So if [the season] just takes care of that, that is something,” he said.
Read the full story in the Bangor Daily News