Winter Shrimp Survey Disappointing

It was big news earlier this winter when the Northern Shrimp Board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) announced that there would be a limited catch survey for a long-time winter delicacy, Pandulis borealis, the Northern shrimp. A small number of experienced shrimp fishermen in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts were given permission to trawl or trap the shrimp in an effort to determine if the species, which has been closed to commercial harvest since 2013, was recovering.

There were high hopes among fishermen and waiting customers for the Northern shrimp research survey this winter. GMRI photo.

In Maine 40 applications were received for seven permits. Applicants had to show that they had two or more years of experience in the shrimp industry and were Maine residents. Those who were selected were allowed to sell the shrimp that they caught. A few seafood markets along the coast soon had waiting lists for the anticipated bounty. 

Shrimp trawlers were allowed one trip a week with a 1200-pound trip limit during the six-week season. Shrimp trappers were allowed to harvest 500 pounds a week.

But the shrimp did not show up.

“At the ASMFC Northern Shrimp Section meeting on May 1, the ASMFC staff gave a verbal update on the preliminary number of shrimp caught by the Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine participants. Preliminary data indicated less than 60 shrimp caught in all sampling,” Corrin Flora, Department of Marine Resources (DMR) Marine Resources Management Coordinator, wrote in an email.

60 shrimp. In total.

Adam Gamage of South Bristol was one of the Maine fishermen selected for the limited catch survey. He had trapped shrimp for years with his late father, Arnie Gamage, before the fishery closed and later as part of a DMR research program.

“I was able to set 40 traps from Pemaquid Point to Outer Heron. I hauled them four different times over the span of five weeks. I only saw 20 individual Northern shrimp over those five weeks. I wouldn’t have believed it unless I saw it for myself,” Gamage said. “When I did sampling with my father in 2020 we averaged seven to ten pounds of shrimp in a trap. So something has changed. I have no idea where they went.”

In the 1990s and 2000s, Maine fishermen were landing Northern shrimp in the millions of pounds. Even as the Gulf of Maine began its rapid warming in the mid-2000s, shrimp harvests in the state topped 10 and 12 million pounds in 2011 and 2010, respectively. But by 2013 that figure was down to half a million pounds. The ASMFC officially closed the fishery in 2013.

Gamage said that catches were no better for the other Maine fishermen. “The other six guys had no luck either. A couple of the trawlers in our area tried all different depths in shore and offshore,” Gamage said. “It’s too bad. It used to be nice to fish on them for a couple months and take a break from lobstering.”