November 14th, 2016 — As expected, the Atlantic States Marine Fishery Commission will close the Gulf of Maine to shrimping in 2017 for the fourth consecutive season.
The ASMFC’s shrimp section, the panel responsible for setting the northern shrimp regulations, voted to extend the closure throughout 2017 and to establish a 53-ton research set-aside that effectively will produce the only shrimp harvested in the next year from the Gulf of Maine.
The shrimp section decision to shutter the beleagured fishery for a fourth consecutive season because of the vastly imperiled state of the northern shrimp stock follows the earlier recommendation of its northern shrimp technical committee.
The technical committee based its recommendation on its survey of the 2016 northern shrimp stock that showed northern shrimp remain in critical condition, with historic lows in biomass, spawning and recruitment.
“Abundance and biomass indices for 2012-2016 are the lowest on record of the 33-year time series,” according to the technical committee’s summary of the stock assessment. “Current harvestable biomass is almost entirely composed of the 2013 year class. Recruits from the 2015 and 2016 year classes are not expected to reach exploitable size until 2018 and 2019, respectively.”
Tina Berger, ASMFC spokeswoman, said representatives from Maine offered a motion for a directed, albeit limited, fishery rather than an extension of the moratorium into the fourth season, but that was struck down due to the continuing depleted state of the stock.
The 53-ton research set-aside more than doubles the 2016 RSA of 22 metric tons.