Fishermen begin 38-day shrimp season

PORTLAND – New England fishermen today begin a 38-day shrimp season, longer than last year’s 25-day season but shorter than fishermen had requested.

The industry had sought a 47-day season that would make it worthwhile for fishermen to rig their boats for shrimp and provide enough volume to keep processors in business.

Scientists had recommended that no shrimp season be scheduled this year in order to protect a promising class of 2-year-old shrimp and the relatively low number of adult spawning shrimp.

After a hearing last November, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission adopted a northern shrimp season that would run from Jan. 15 to Feb. 27 with no fishing on Fridays.

Each year, scores of fishing boats in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts catch millions of pounds of shrimp off New England. The small pink crustaceans pump millions of dollars into the economy.

The catch, however, can fluctuate wildly.

Maine boats last year caught 322 metric tons of shrimp, a huge drop from the 6,050 metric tons they caught five years earlier when the season ran for 156 days. Landings in New Hampshire and Massachusetts fell from 1,029 metric tons to just 53 metric tons over the same period.

During last year’s season, the shortest since the fishery was shut down altogether in 1978, 133 Maine boats went out for shrimp. Participation this year is anyone’s guess.

“You never know what’s going to happen until the first week or so,” said Barbara Stevenson, owner of three Portland-based fishing boats. She noted, however, that strict regulations on groundfishing have left many fishermen with few options.

Vincent Balzano, also of Portland, planned to go shrimping but doubted whether his efforts would reap much reward.

“It’s one of the only remaining open-access fisheries that we have, but I’m just not very optimistic about it,” he said, pointing to the inconsistent supplies that have driven some processors from the business.

“Even if there’s an abundance of shrimp, I believe the pie’s going to be cut up so much that for an individual it doesn’t look very good,” Balzano said.

Margaret Hunter, a scientist with the Maine Department of Marine Resources, said fishermen who venture out this season are likely to net adult females along with smaller stock.