Saving Seafood

ASMFC Northern Shrimp Section Extends Moratorium on Commercial and Recreational Fishing Through 2024

December 20, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section (Section) has extended the moratorium on commercial and recreational fishing for northern shrimp through 2024. This action responds to the results of the 2021 Stock Assessment Update, which indicates the Gulf of Maine northern shrimp population remains depleted. The 2021 summer survey indices of abundance, biomass, and recruitment were at time-series lows since this data began to be collected in 1984. Predation and other environmental factors, such as warming water temperatures continue to impact the ability of the resource to rebuild.

At the meeting, several industry members voiced support for re-opening a limited commercial fishery or possibly a personal use fishery in order to aid in the collection of data to evaluate the stock status, as well as provide socioeconomic benefits to local communities. The Section did not support opening a commercial fishery due to the negative impact this would likely have on the stock. However, the Section did consider opening a small recreational fishery consisting of a two-week season, three-trap limit per person, and a 25 pound possession limit. Ultimately, the Section did not pursue this management option due to concerns about stock status, equitable access to the resource, the difficulty of preventing the illegal sale of shrimp, controlling effort, and monitoring harvest levels.

Given the continued poor condition of the resource, the extremely low likelihood of being able to fish sustainably, and the value of maximizing spawning potential to rebuild the stock if environmental conditions improve, the Section determined that a continuation of the moratorium was the best course of action. This decision aligns with the primary management objective within the Northern Shrimp Fishery Management Plan that requires the Section to protect and maintain the stock at sustainable levels that support a viable fishery. An additional FMP objective requires the Section to minimize the adverse impacts the shrimp fishery may have on other natural resources, including other commercially important fish that prey on northern shrimp.

The Section received a work group progress update on evaluating management strategies for northern shrimp given changes in species abundance. The Section agreed that this work should be continued with particular focus on further developing a management option for recreational fishing that allows for the personal consumption of harvested shrimp. The work group was also directed to explore how the northern shrimp fishery would be managed if the Commission relinquished control of the fishery management plan. Since future funding for the summer shrimp survey remains uncertain, the Section also tasked the work group with discussing options for maintaining stock assessment updates without the data that this survey provides. The work group will continue to discuss these topics in consultation with representatives from the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Commission’s Interstate Fisheries Management Program Policy Board, the Northern Shrimp Technical Committee, and the Northern Shrimp Advisory Panel.

Finally, the Section elected Senator David Miramant of Maine as Section Vice-Chair. Section members thanked Raymond Kane of Massachusetts for his two years of service as Chair; Ritchie White of New Hampshire is the new incoming Chair.

The 2021 Stock Assessment Update is available athttp://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/61bd06a5NShrimpAssessmentUpdateReport_2021.pdf. For more information, please contact Dustin Colson Leaning, Fishery Management Coordinator, atdleaning@asmfc.org.

 

New England shrimp fishery to stay shuttered as waters warm

December 17, 2021 — New England’s commercial shrimp fishery will remain shut down because of concerns about the health of the crustacean’s population amid warming ocean temperatures.

The cold-water shrimp were once a winter delicacy in Maine and beyond, but the fishing industry has been shut down since 2013. A board of the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted on Friday to keep the fishery shuttered for at least three more years.

The shrimp prefer cold water and their population health is imperiled by the warming of the ocean off New England. The Gulf of Maine, in particular, is warming faster than most of the world’s ocean.

New England shrimp industry should not restart, experts say

December 3, 2021 — A group of experts is recommending to keep New England’s shrimp fishing industry closed down because of concerns about the health of the population.

The industry has been shut down since 2013. Scientists have said the shrimp are in jeopardy in part because of the warming of waters off New England. A board of the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is slated to vote Dec. 17 on whether to reopen fishing.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

 

Regulators to decide on future of Maine shrimp fishery

November 29, 2021 — The latest chapter of Maine’s shrimp fishery is expected to be decided next month.

The fishery has been closed for nearly a decade after a collapse of the northern shrimp’s stock in 2013. A moratorium on the fishery has been in place ever since. It is set to expire at the end of this year and regulators plan to review an updated stock assessment and decide if the fishery should reopen.

The Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section plans to meet virtually from 9-11 a.m. on Dec. 17 to discuss the update and set the specifications for the 2022 shrimp season.

An advisory shrimp panel plans to meet the morning before to develop recommendations for the section to consider.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Shrimp, finfish aquaculture recovering from COVID-19 impacts

November 23, 2021 — Both shrimp and finfish aquaculture continued to grow globally in 2021, but might experience flattening or slower growth in 2022, according to production surveys conducted by the Global Seafood Alliance.

In a presentation at the final day of the organization’s Global Outlook for Aquaculture Leadership (GOAL) conference on 17 November, Rabobank Senior Analyst Gorjan Nikolik said globally, the aquaculture sector’s production is slowly normalizing after disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

Squid a possible culprit in Gulf of Maine shrimp’s demise

October 14, 2021 — Maine’s shrimp fishery has been closed for nearly a decade since the stock’s collapse in 2013. Scientists are now saying a species of squid that came into the Gulf of Maine during a historic ocean heatwave the year before may have been a “major player” in the shrimp’s downturn.

In 2012, the Gulf of Maine experienced some of its warmest temperatures in decades. Within a couple of years, the cold-water-loving northern shrimp had rapidly declined and the fishery, a small but valued source of income for fishermen in the offseason, closed.

Anne Richards, a biologist at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and Margaret Hunter, a biologist with the Maine Department of Marine Resources, studied the collapse and found that it coincided with an influx of longfin squid, a major shrimp predator.

The squid is a “voracious and opportunistic” predator that Richards and Hunter believe expanded in the gulf during the heatwave at the same time the shrimp population was struggling because of warmer water temperatures.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

 

Aftereffects of Hurricane Ida still being felt by Louisiana’s oyster-growers

October 12, 2021 — As Hurricane Ida plowed into the U.S. state of Louisiana and on to the Northeast last month, another storm surge of sorts swept through seafood markets, a brutal putdown to the local seafood industry’s slow pandemic recovery.

With heavy damage to local fleets, hard-hit Lafourche and Terrebonne parish bayou communities were cut off from power through the end of September, hobbling efforts to repair docks and bring back ice and shrimp packing.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Northeast Shrimp: Moratorium expires this year, but biomass still at bottom

October 7, 2021 — It is almost certain that Maine shrimp will not be on any menus, or in markets this year.

The Maine shrimp (pandalus borealis — also known as northern shrimp and pink shrimp) had its last commercial season in Maine in 2013.

Back then, dealers paid fishermen an average of $1.81 a pound. But since then, the fishery has been closed, aside from a few years of limited catch for research purposes, with very small amounts of pricy shrimp making it to markets. Shrimp thrives in cold water. Warming waters, have made life hard on the species.

In 1962, shrimp was 15 cents per pound at the dock. By 1995, it was worth 90 cents and valued at $10.67 million, according to Maine Department of Marine Resources data. Marshall Alexander, 75, who works out of Portland, has been a commercial fisherman for six decades. Back in the day, Marshall caught a lot of shrimp on his boat, the De Dee Mae II.

“I used to get three-fourths of my pay catching shrimp,” Alexander says. “I was very good at it… I hate to say it. I figured out where they go.” Alexander feels there are shrimp populations out there, waiting to be caught. “I hope we have a season,” he adds.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Scientists think they’ve found the reason for Maine’s prized shrimp fishery collapse. They point to longfin squid

October 1, 2021 — Scientists think they’ve found the chief culprit in the collapse of Maine’s prized shrimp fishery. They’re pointing the finger at a voracious species of squid that rode in on warming waters almost ten years ago.

Maine shrimp were long a regional delicacy fishermen and diners alike looked forward to each fall, with 10 million pounds and more harvested annually earlier in this century. While they’re small compared to other commercially-harvested shrimp, fans say they are sweeter too.

But in 2012, their population collapsed, federal regulators closed the fishery, and they haven’t recovered since.

Their latin name is Pandalus borealis, which gives a nod to their preference for cold arctic waters. Maine was always at the southern edge of their range, and the crash coincided with an extreme marine heat wave that warmed the Gulf of Maine’s waters to the highest temperatures since the 1950s.

But some thought there had to be more to the shrimp’s disappearance than just heat-sensitivity.

“After I saw this I remembered a fisherman saying to me ‘it’s the damn squid.’ He was saying there had been squid all over the place that spring,” Richards said.

Read the full story at Maine Public