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October 23, 2017

Maine to benefit most if shrimp fishery reopens

Courtesy / Natalie Maynor. Flickr Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission approved an action that strictly allocates catch limits for Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. If and when the fishery reopens, Maine Maine will receive 80% of the total allowable catch of shrimp.

Maine will receive 80% of the total allowable catch of shrimp, if and when the fishery reopens.

The Gloucester Times reported the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission approved an action that strictly allocates catch limits for Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. 

The fishery has been closed since 2014. The allocation was approved as an alternative to a proposal to limit entry into the fishery.

In 2013, Maine’s shrimp fishery harvested 563,313 pounds of shrimp with a reported value of slightly more than $1 million, according to the Maine Department of Marine Fisheries. In 2012, the Maine’s shrimp harvest was 4.8 million pounds, with a reported value of $4.6 million. 

The action also allocates 87% of each state's total allowable catch to the trawl fishery and 13% to the trap fishery.

The ASMFC closed the fishery when the 2013 stock assessment showed spawning stock biomass and recruitment levels for northern shrimp had been declining since 2006.

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