Saving Seafood

MAINE: Midcoast hits the jackpot with Maine shrimp temporarily back on the market

January 28, 2024 — Coming up in February, Midcoast Mainers will see their favorite Maine shrimp on the market again—for a very short time.

Only seven fishermen were chosen out of 40 applicants to participate in a Winter Sampling Research Program for Northern shrimp and will be allowed to catch 58,000 pounds of Maine shrimp for the first time in more than a decade. Shrimpers will collect samples by either trawling and trapping in one of three regions of the Maine coast: Western Maine (Kittery to Phippsburg), Midcoast Maine (Phippsburg to Owls Head), or Eastern Maine (east of Owls Head).

In contrast, when the fishery was forced to close due to a stock collapse in 2013, more than 10 million pounds were caught. At that time, the average price per pound was $1.81.

This is driving up a supply and demand frenzy for Northern Maine shrimp, which has not been seen before in Maine.

All but one fisherman chosen to catch Maine shrimp are located in the Midcoast.

Two Midcoast markets, Delano Seafood Market in Waldoboro and Port Clyde Fresh Catch, have announced they will be selling shrimp on a temporary basis—and people are lining up out the door.

Read the full article at Penobscot Bay Pilot

MAINE: Maine shrimp fishery faces potential permanent closure

August 26, 2022 — Regulators are considering a permanent closure of the northern shrimp fishery off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section met in Portland last week to discuss several issues related to the northern shrimp.

There has not been a northern shrimp fishing season in the Gulf of Maine since 2013. A moratorium was placed on the fishery because the shrimp population collapsed.

In 2013, Maine fishermen caught 602,980 pounds of shrimp for a value of $1,082,342. In 2012, Maine’s shrimp catch was 4,910,955 pounds with a value of $4,688,796 and in 2011 the catch was 10,191,149 pounds worth $7,671,751.

Read the full article at WMTW

Northeast Shrimp: Moratorium expires this year, but biomass still at bottom

October 7, 2021 — It is almost certain that Maine shrimp will not be on any menus, or in markets this year.

The Maine shrimp (pandalus borealis — also known as northern shrimp and pink shrimp) had its last commercial season in Maine in 2013.

Back then, dealers paid fishermen an average of $1.81 a pound. But since then, the fishery has been closed, aside from a few years of limited catch for research purposes, with very small amounts of pricy shrimp making it to markets. Shrimp thrives in cold water. Warming waters, have made life hard on the species.

In 1962, shrimp was 15 cents per pound at the dock. By 1995, it was worth 90 cents and valued at $10.67 million, according to Maine Department of Marine Resources data. Marshall Alexander, 75, who works out of Portland, has been a commercial fisherman for six decades. Back in the day, Marshall caught a lot of shrimp on his boat, the De Dee Mae II.

“I used to get three-fourths of my pay catching shrimp,” Alexander says. “I was very good at it… I hate to say it. I figured out where they go.” Alexander feels there are shrimp populations out there, waiting to be caught. “I hope we have a season,” he adds.

Read the full story at National Fisherman