The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Northern Shrimp Section closed the 48-day-old northern shrimp season Feb. 17 amid fierce industry opposition.
The section, which regulates the fishery in Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, set a quota of 2211 metric tons (about 4.9 million pounds).
According to the commission press release announcing the closure, landings were “projected to have already exceeded” the quota as of Feb. 15.
The Maine shrimp industry has opposed the closure. Five seafood companies started an online petition asking the commission to reconsider the quota and revise the scientific model used to establish it. The group says it collected more than 1500 signatures.
The industry claims studies ignored by the commission show the shrimp stock is as healthy as ever.
The industry says thousands of people, including fishermen, processors and truck drivers, will lose their jobs and the state might lose valuable overseas markets to international competition.
The section, meanwhile, says exceeding the quota “would lead to overfishing of the stock,” according to the Feb. 15 press release.
This year’s regulations also left factions of the fishery unhappy.
Shrimp boats either drag (trawl) for or trap shrimp. The 2012 fishery opened for draggers Jan. 1, but limited the draggers to three fishing days per week. The trap season didn’t start until Feb. 1, and trappers, while able to fish every day, couldn’t exceed a 1000-pound daily quota.
John Seiders, a South Bristol trapper, serves on the Northern Shrimp Advisory Panel, a committee made up of fishermen and others in the industry.
As a trapper, Seiders had just 17 days to fish this season. “I went every day that I could go,” he said, but he feels the daily quota and the late start “severely disadvantaged” trappers. “We got discriminated against,” he said.
“They should have put a trip limit on the draggers from the beginning,” Seiders said. Instead, the commission allowed draggers to harvest the majority of the quota while trappers sat idle.
Seiders said he didn’t sign the industry petition. He agrees with the petition’s goal, but doesn’t think it will make any difference to the commission.
He believes politics drive the decisions of the commission and its technical committee – the scientists who the commission relies heavily on for information about the health of the fishery.
“The whole thing left a really bad taste in my mouth,” Seiders said.
