PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Regulators voted Thursday to extend a shutdown to prevent New England fishermen from catching shrimp, a long-established industry that has recently fallen victim to ocean warming.
New England fishermen, especially those from Maine, used to catch millions of pounds of tiny pink shrimp during the winter, but the industry has been under a moratorium since 2014. Scientists say rising temperatures are creating an inhospitable environment for shrimp, and their numbers are too low to sustainably harvest.
A division of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Regulatory Commission voted Thursday to keep the fishery closed for at least another three years. The Atlantic states said in the document that although environmental conditions have improved slightly, this year’s shrimp numbers remain “poor”.
The decision came after shrimp harvesters were allowed to harvest small quantities of shrimp as part of an industry-funded sampling and data collection program. The fishermen battled the bad weather and caught only 70 shrimp, totaling less than 3 pounds.
However, “the extremely low catches observed throughout the program, even with severe weather, heightened concerns about the viability of shrimp stocks in the northern Gulf of Maine,” the document states.
New England shrimp are a winter delicacy when the fishery is active, with fishermen sometimes catching more than 10 million pounds (4,536 kilograms) a year. Baby pink shrimp are just a small part of the country’s massive wild shrimp industry, which harvests some of the world’s most valuable seafood.
In 2013, Maine’s shrimp catch dropped significantly, with fishermen catching less than 600,000 pounds (272,155 kilograms) of the crustaceans, while fishermen caught more than eight times the amount the previous year. Fishing groups have sometimes lobbied for the shrimp industry to reopen on a smaller basis, but most former Maine shrimpers have switched to other species.
