October 5, 2018 — The shrimp section of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted Thursday to accept the 2018 benchmark assessment for northern shrimp that continues to reflect a stock in free fall and facing a highly uncertain future.
The assessment seems to point to another closure for the fishery that has been shuttered since after the 2013 fishing season because of the dire and deteriorating state of the northern shrimp stock.
The final decision on whether to close the fishery for the sixth consecutive year will come in November, when the shrimp section and its advisory panel are scheduled to meet to set specifications for the 2019 fishing season.
It does not look good.
The assessment, according to the section, indicates the northern shrimp population remains severely depleted, spawning stock biomass remains at the same low levels that have existed since 2013 and recruitment of new shrimp into the fishery continues at historically low numbers.
It also underlines the negative impact of the Gulf of Maine’s warming waters on the northern shrimp stock.
“Warmer water temperatures are generally associated with lower recruitment indices and poorer survival during the first year of life,” the section said in a statement. “Ocean temperatures in the western Gulf of Maine shrimp habitat have increased over the past decade, and temperature is predicted to continue rising as a result of climate change. This suggests an increasingly inhospitable environment for northern shrimp in the Gulf of Maine.”