December 15, 2025 — On Thursday, December 11, 2025, the Northern Shrimp Section of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission meeting in Portland, Maine, voted to extend the moratorium on New England’s northern shrimp fishery for another three years. The Northern Shrimp Section, comprised of members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, made the decision to keep the fishery closed after hearing from the Northern Shrimp Technical Committee (NSTC).
The NSTC had set triggers for sea surface and bottom temperatures and recruitment, which could have started a discussion about reopening the fishery, and while sea surface temperatures reached the triggers, bottom temperature and recruitment did not.
But not everyone trusts those numbers. “You need data to manage the fishery,” says Glen Libby of Port Clyde, Maine. “And the NSTC doesn’t have any that’s reliable.”