|
New
England fishermen, especially those from Maine, used to catch
millions of pounds of small pink shrimp in the winter, but the
business has been under a fishing moratorium since 2014. Rising
temperatures have created an inhospitable environment for the
shrimp, and their population is too low to fish sustainably,
scientists have said.
An arm of the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries
Commission voted Thursday to shut down the fishery for at least
another three years. Abundance of the shrimp remained “poor”
this year despite slightly improved environmental conditions,
the Atlantic States said in documents.
The decision came after shrimp harvesters were allowed to catch
a small number of shrimp as part of an industry-funded sampling
and data collection program. The fishermen, who battled some
rough weather, caught only 70 shrimp totaling less than 3
pounds.
However, "even with the bad weather, exceptionally low catch
levels observed throughout the program reinforce concerns about
the viability of the northern shrimp stock in the Gulf of
Maine,” the documents state.
New England shrimp were a winter delicacy when the fishery was
active, and fishermen sometimes caught more than 10 million
pounds (4,536 kilograms) of them in a year. The small pink
shrimp were a small part of the country's large wild caught
shrimp industry, which catches some of the most valuable seafood
in the world.
Maine's catch of shrimp cratered in 2013, when fishermen caught
less than 600,000 pounds (272,155 kilograms) of the crustaceans
after hauling more than eight times that the previous year.
Fishing groups have sometimes lobbied for the shrimping industry
to be reopened on a smaller scale basis, but most former Maine
shrimpers have moved on to other species.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved
|
|
