August 13, 2020 — When NOAA Fisheries recently cancelled four fishery and ecosystem surveys because of pandemic-related health and safety concerns, it was no real surprise that the Northern shrimp survey was one of the casualties.
It’s was just another indication of the star-crossed nature of the once-thriving regional shrimp fishery in the Gulf of Maine.
The imperiled fishery, which has suffered debilitating declines in its ability to sustain biomass and recruitment, has been closed since the end of the 2013 fishing season. Six times, the Atlantic States Marine Fishery Commission looked at the numbers generated by stock surveys and six times it saw no recourse but to shutter the fishery.
Matters devolved to the point that in late 2019, the ASMFC abandoned the previous policy of single-season closures and closed the Northern shrimp fishery for three years, ending in 2021.