Portland Fish Exchange sees increased landings

PORTLAND – The Portland Fish Exchange saw a 33 percent increase in fish landings last year and expects to see near-record levels this year.

Declining catches had put the city-owned display auction’s survival in doubt. But rebounding groundfish populations in the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank led to a turnaround, which is testing the exchange’s capacity.

“We’re on our feet, and now we’re trying to run to get ahead of ourselves,” said Wendi White, general manager of the exchange.

A little more than a year ago, White was cutting back on personnel and maintenance, but now she is struggling to hire enough people to keep up with the work.

In 2000, the exchange handled 23.2 million pounds of groundfish and shrimp, up from a 10-year low of 17.5 million pounds in 1999.

For 2001, White projects total landings of 30 million pounds, 1 million pounds shy of the auction’s record year, 1993.

Similar increases in volume throughout New England suggests that the upswing should be attributed more to an increase in stocks than to competition among groundfish ports, officials said.

Decades of overfishing that depleted fish stocks were followed by several years of closed fishing grounds and restrictions on fishing days and catches.

“We’ve had restrictions for a long time and what we’re starting to see is the cumulative impact of all those restrictions,” said Maine’s Commissioner of Marine Resources George Lapointe.