December 7, 2013 — This week, regulators shut down the New England fishery for Gulf of Maine shrimp for the first time in 35 years. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission judged the stocks of the popular shrimp, also known as northern shrimp, to be dangerously low.
"Shrimp is just one of those treasures in the winter of Maine," says Taylor, who co-owns the upscale Hugo's Restaurant in downtown Portland with Wiley. The restaurant sits just yards from the city's working waterfront and the two pride themselves on serving fresh, local seafood.
Maine shrimp normally hit the menu in January or February. They may not be big — they're about an inch-and-a-half long — but Taylor says they're full of flavor.
"You see them on other menus as 'bay shrimp,' and they're the tiny little tails that come in all those salads," he says. "A lot of those are provided by the state of Maine. They're used frozen all over the country and all over the world."
Wiley says shrimp will be sorely missed this winter, but he understands the rationale behind the moratorium.
"It means one less exciting local product to work with, but we'd like to see Maine shrimp on menus 10 years from now more than we need to have it on the menu for this upcoming year," Wiley says.
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