Saving Seafood

Panel recommends reopening New England shrimp fishery

November 29, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — An advisory group is recommending regulators reopen New England’s long-shuttered shrimp fishery next year.

An arm of the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will decide on Wednesday in Portland if there will be a fishery this coming season. The advisory board’s recommendation clashes with an opinion from the commission’s technical committee, which wants to keep the fishery closed.

New England shrimp fishing is based in Maine and has been shut down since 2013.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Bradenton Herald 

 

Odds are tiny for a winter shrimp fishing season

November 28, 2017 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — With fisheries regulators slated to gather in Portland on Wednesday, a shrimp fishing season in the Gulf of Maine this winter seemed as likely as bipartisan tax legislation in Congress.

The schedule called for members of the Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section to meet in the afternoon to establish dates and landings limits for the 2018 season. All evidence suggested that, except for a tiny “research” fishery, the limit, or total allowable catch, will be zero and there will be no season at all.

According to the commission’s recently released “2017 Stock Status Report for Gulf of Maine, Northern Shrimp,” the resource is in terrible shape. For the past five years (2012 through 2017) the shrimp stock has been at its lowest, both in terms of number and total biomass, over the 34 years that the shrimp population has been surveyed.

Prospects for the shrimp resource to rebound in the Gulf of Maine are grim.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American 

 

Decision coming about future of New England shrimp fishing

November 27, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — A decision is coming this week about whether New England’s long-shuttered shrimp fishery can reopen.

New England shrimping, largely based in Maine, has been shut down since 2013. Regulators say the shrimp are suffering from poor reproduction and warming ocean temperatures.

An arm of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is meeting on Wednesday in Portland to decide if there will be a fishery this coming season.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Bristol Herald Courier

 

Scientists Again Recommend Moratorium On Maine Shrimp Fishery

November 22, 2017 — Coveted Maine shrimp are likely off the menu again in 2018.

For the fifth straight year, federal scientists are recommending a moratorium on commercial fishing of northern shrimp in the Gulf of Maine. The small, sweet-tasting invertebrates’ numbers and biomass in the gulf have been dropping steadily, reaching their lowest recorded level this year, according to Max Appelman, who coordinates the fishery’s management for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

“We haven’t seen consecutive low values like this in the history of this fishery. So, somewhat unprecedented, where we are right now,” he says.

Read the full story at Maine Public

 

Maine’s shrimp fishery unlikely to open in 2018

November 22, 2017 — The Maine shrimp fishery appears headed toward another closed season in 2018 based on bleak stock assessments made earlier this year, according to federal officials.

If a panel meeting next Wednesday in Portland agrees with the recommendations released this week, 2018 would be the fourth year the small but much-loved winter fishery is closed.

“It was not a good result for shrimp this year,” said Max Appelman, who coordinates the fishery for the federal regulatory body, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, that oversees the fishery.

Abundance of the species was at a 34-year low in 2017, according to the commission. During the annual summer scientific survey, data showed that survival of the shrimp that spawned in 2016 was the second lowest observed in the history of the survey, which began in the mid-1980s.

Climate change is the likeliest cause for the crash in the fishery; Northern shrimp, or pandalus borealis, require cold winter water to spawn. Waters in the Gulf of Maine, the southern most waters the shrimp can survive in, are warming faster than 99 percent of the world’s oceans, according to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.

The environment for shrimp is increasingly “inhospitable,” according to the report.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

 

ASMFC Northern Shrimp Section and Advisory Panel Meeting Materials Now Available

November 21, 2017 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission: 

Meeting materials for the November 29, 2017 meetings of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section and Advisory Panel are available at http://www.asmfc.org/files/Meetings/NShrimpSection_AP_MtgMaterials_Nov2017.pdf  or on the Commission’s website athttp://www.asmfc.org/calendar/11/2017/Northern-Shrimp-Section-and-Advisory-Panel/1136. For more information, please contact Max Appelman, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mappelman@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

Learn more about the ASMFC by visiting their site here.

 

Seafood fans hope for return of Maine shrimp in 2018

October 28, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — Seafood lovers might see the return of Maine shrimp to fish market counters and restaurants next year if interstate regulators decide the critter’s population is strong enough.

The Maine shrimp fishery has been shut down since 2013, and a moratorium has been extended every year since. The regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has said the shrimp are “considered at record low levels,” suffering from poor reproduction and warming oceans.

An arm of the commission is set to vote on Nov. 29 on whether the shrimp have recovered enough to withstand the return of commercial fishing. They were a popular winter seafood item in New England and beyond before the shutdown.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Boston Globe 

 

ASMFC Approves Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Northern Shrimp

October 19, 2017 — NORFOLK, Va. — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission approved Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Northern Shrimp. The Amendment is designed to improve management of the northern shrimp resource in the event the fishery reopens (the fishery has been under moratorium since 2014). Specifically, the Amendment refines the FMP objectives and provides the flexibility to use the best available information to define the status of the stock and set the total allowable catch (TAC). Furthermore, the Amendment implements a state-specific allocation program to better manage effort in the fishery; 80% of the annual TAC will be allocated to Maine, 10% to New Hampshire, and 10% to Massachusetts. Fishermen with a trap landings history will continue to operate under gear-specific allocations (i.e., 87% of the state-specific quota will be allocated to the trawl fishery, and 13% to the trap fishery), however, the Section anticipates exploring alternative measures through the adaptive management process that would allow states to modify allocation between gear types on an annual basis. The Section also has the discretion to roll over unused quota from the states of New Hampshire and Massachusetts to Maine by a date determined during annual specifications.

Additionally, the Amendment strengthens catch and landings reporting requirements to ensure all harvested shrimp are being reported, and requires shrimp-directed trawl vessels to use either a double-Nordmore or compound grate system (both designed to minimize the catch of small, presumably male, shrimp). Other changes include the implementation of accountability measures (i.e., penalties if states exceed their quota), specification of a maximum fishing season length, and formalizing fishery-dependent monitoring requirements.

The Section will meet November 29 at the Westin Portland Harborview, Hotel 157 High Street, Portland, ME, to review the 2017 stock status report and set specifications for the 2018 fishing season. For more information, please contact, Max Appelman, FMP Coordinator, at mappelman@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

A PDF version of the press release can be found here – http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/59e8de69pr53NShrimpAm3_Approval.pdf.

Lora Snyder: Help Harvey recovery by consuming sustainable Gulf seafood

October 6, 2017 — Many of the men and women who work every day to bring some of the best, sustainable seafood to your dinner plate have plenty to worry about – fishing can be hard business.

Fishers and others in the industry deal with a host of ever-changing variables: fuel prices, market fluctuations, fishery health and abundance, competition with imports, long unpredictable hours and one of the more uncertain wild cards – weather. Changing winds can mean the difference between days’ or even weeks’ worth of income.

And now, weather is becoming even more of a concern. Today, stronger and stronger storms that scientists attribute to warming oceans – a result of human-caused climate change – are becoming more common. These days bad weather is an existential threat to the industry.

According to the Chronicle Hurricane Harvey damaged or destroyed 25 percent of the Texas shrimp fleet. Oystermen predicted shortages of upcoming oyster harvests due to the runoff from Harvey’s historic rains. And then came Irma. Tragically, a Florida shrimper lost his life off the coast of Tampa, when the hurricane bulldozed up the state’s Gulf Coast.

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have been devastating, but there is a unique way to help your fellow Americans. This is a great time to get better acquainted with our own healthy and sustainable seafood that’s right here in our backyard.

Read the full opinion piece at the Houston Chronicle