Federal regulators have canceled the commercial fishing season for northern shrimp in the Gulf of Maine for the second consecutive year.
Marin Hawk, fishery management plan coordinator for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's (ASMFC) Northern Shrimp Section, told SeafoodSource that the section on Wednesday allocated a 25-metric-ton quota to the research fishery but none to the commercial fishery.
After closing the 2014 fishery for the first time in 30 years, a technical committee that advises the section recommended extending the clousure, citing the “depleted condition of the resource and poor prospects for the near future.”
The technical committee’s report blames rising ocean temperature for the decline. Regulators say the fishery's estimated population fell by a factor of 14 from 2011 to 2013.
The fishery has become an important source of income for seasonal fishermen during the winter months.
