The once-lucrative winter shrimp fishery in the Gulf of Maine this past season was in its fourth consecutive year of a moratorium, but even with that conservation measure the fishery’s turnaround remains in doubt.
The Working Waterfront reported the northern shrimp stock has historically been subjected to ups and downs, probably due to a combination of overfishing and warm temperatures, but followed by rapid recoveries.
Fishery managers are now looking at the possibility of warming ocean waters as the predominant factor in stock decline — with data showing the three worst years on record in the last five years. They’re now considering whether to allow a small fishery or close it.
Bottom line: It hasn’t been decided yet whether there will be a 2018 fishery.
“The last several surveys have been very disappointing, with below average recruitment,” Maggie Hunter, a marine resource scientist at the state Department of Marine Resources, told The Working Waterfront.
The moratorium on shrimp fishing in the Gulf of Maine began at the end of 2013, after a steady decline in catches since 2006 and status reports showing the shrimp populations being the lowest on record in 2012 and 2013.