ELLSWORTH, Maine — March 11, 2013 — Due to low catches of northern shrimp, which officials say may be a result of relatively warm water temperatures in the Gulf of Maine, hours in the fishery are being expanded, according to officials.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission also set a season end date of April 12 and, for the trap fishery, decided to remove the daily limit of 500 pounds, the Maine Department of Marine Resources said.
With the changes, trap fishermen will be able to harvest as many shrimp as they can bring ashore in one trip. If the season lasts until the chosen ending date, it will be the first time it has lasted past the end of February since 2010.
DMR issued a prepared statement indicating that ASMFC voted on Friday to allow fishing seven days a week for both trawlers and trappers. The new hours go into effect on Wednesday, March 13.
Currently, trawlers are limited to fishing four days a week — Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays — while trappers can harvest shrimp any day of the week except Sunday, according to DMR.
In addition, DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher decided to allow shrimp trawlers to fish each day from sunrise to sunset. Hours for trawlers have been restricted from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on the four allowed fishing days each week. Other shrimp fishing rules expected to go into effect on March 13 include restricting individual fishermen to using either traps or trawl nets, but not both, and bringing shrimp ashore only once per calendar day.
The target limit this year for northern shrimp is 625 metric tons, less than a quarter of what it was for the 2012 season. Six hundred and twenty-five metric tons is equal to nearly 1.4 million pounds.