February 23, 2022 — Shrimp sales to the U.S. foodservice sector rebounded in 2021 from a significant drop in 2020 caused by the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While overall sales haven’t yet caught up to 2019, shifts in demand favored larger-sized shrimp and easier-to-prep trims, according to data shared during the National Fisheries Institute Global Seafood Market Conference in January 2022.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource
February 1, 2022 — Halfway between Lafayette and Abbeville on Highway U.S. 167 is the little town of Maurice. A short hop-skip and a jump off the highway lays a backyard seafood store known for some of the freshest, highest quality shrimp and seafood in the state. Instead of a garage you find a homemade freezer housing Granger’s Seafood’s own brand of shrimp, crab, alligator, and other Louisiana products. Problem; like a lot of the rest of Louisiana seafood industry theirs is in jeopardy of disappearing.
Al and Cheryl Granger business was not physically damaged by any of the six major storms hitting the state during the past two-years. But like those to the east and west of them that were, they are struggling to survive.
“That Hurricane Ida in the east makes me cry for those people, we were blessed over here,” said Cheryl Granger who operates the store while her husband shrimps.
Read the full story at Gulf Seafood News
January 20, 2022 — Global shrimp production has continued to trend upward, with a panel of experts at the National Fisheries Institute’s Global Seafood Market Conference predicting that global shrimp production will exceed 5 million metric tons (MT) in 2022.
Current predictions put the production at 5.011 million MT in 2022, a significant increase over the 4.569 million MT grown in 2021, which itself was an increase over the 4.086 million MT produced in 2020. Globally, shrimp production has seen a tremendous upswing – in 2015, global shrimp production didn’t even reach 3 million MT.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource
January 6, 2022 — Although the United States Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) seafood import refusals dropped significantly in December, they surged for the year of 2021.
Last year, the FDA refused 75 entry lines of antibiotic-contaminated shrimp, over twice as many entry lines refused in 2020, according to the Southern Shrimp Alliance.
December 20, 2021 — Maine’s northern shrimp fishery has been closed for seven years and regulators decided Friday to continue the harvest moratorium for another three years with no signs of rebound.
But in a change, officials with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission entertained the idea of opening a small personal-use fishery at the suggestion of the Maine Department of Marine Resources and planned to look into it in the future.
A moratorium was enacted after the northern shrimp stock collapsed in 2013 and has been in place ever since. It is unclear what caused the shrimp’s downturn but recent research suggests that a species of squid that rode into the Gulf of Maine on a historic 2012 heatwave may have played a significant role.
Maine is the southernmost range of the shrimp and the gulf’s warming waters are also suspected to be part of the reason the cold-loving shrimp have struggled to bounce back, even with no commercial fishing for nearly a decade.
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.
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 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.
Scientists have also said recently that warming waters led to increased predation from a species of squid that feeds on shrimp.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Post
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
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.
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.