January 26, 2012

 

US shrimp to boost catch limit by 10%

 

 

An increase in the catch limit for the current shrimp season by 10%, an amount that fishermen and processors say won't do enough to help their industry, has been decided by regulators Thursday (Jan 19).

 

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's Northern Shrimp Section voted to increase the total allowable catch in the Gulf of Maine from 2,000-2,211 tonnes.

 

The commissioners, who represent Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, approved that proposal after rejecting another to increase the limit to 3,000 tonnes.

 

"It was a throwaway vote" that will not support the industry's jobs or meet market demand, said John Norton, owner of Cozy Harbor Seafood in Portland, which has 175 workers. "When we can't fill our customers' orders, they go elsewhere," he said.

 

The season began January 2 for trawlers. Trappers will be able to start fishing February 1. Last season, regulators imposed a 136-day limit on fishing with the intent of limiting the harvest to 4,000 tonnes. The actual harvest was 5,920 tonnes, said Tina Berger, a spokeswoman for the commission. The catch quota is new for 2012.

 

Industry representatives opposed the quota for this season, saying it would cause them to lose overseas markets and hurt fishermen who rely on shrimping in the winter to supplement their work in ground fishing or lobstering the rest of the year. They organised an online petition at SaveOurShrimp.org and arranged for outside scientists to present findings supporting a larger quota.

 

On Thursday, an overflow crowd of more than 150 people attended the commission's meeting at the Marriott hotel in South Portland. Commissioners were presented with 1,581 signatures collected through the online petition drive.

 

Steven Cadrin, a fisheries scientist from the University of Massachusetts, said that in one of the statistical models they relied on, regulators weren't using the right value to represent shrimp mortality. Cadrin concluded that a 4,500-tonne limit would be acceptable.

 

Another scientist, Michael Sissenwine, questioned the shrimp mortality rate being assumed, but was more cautious about whether the 4,500-tonne limit would be appropriate.

 

"There are good arguments not to go that high. ... There are arguments that you could go that high," said Sissenwine, a visiting scholar from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

 

Patrick Keliher, one of Maine's representatives on the commission, proposed a limit of 3,000 tonnes after the scientists' presentations.

 

"I continue to remain concerned about some of the discrepancies we're hearing about in the science," said Keliher, who is acting commissioner of Maine's Department of Marine Resources. He said the use of an incorrect figure in determining a quota can have a great impact on the industry, the vast majority of which is based in Maine.

 

Since the season opened, an estimated 426 tonnes of shrimp have been landed. Maine fishermen have landed 353 tonnes, while those in Massachusetts and New Hampshire have landed 23 tonnes and 49 tonnes, respectively.

 

Last year, the value of shrimp landings totalled US$10.5 million, according to Save Our Shrimp. Norton says Maine's shrimp fleet totalled about 280 boats last year and employed about 1,500 people, between boat crews, processing workers, truckers and dock workers.

 

Vincent Balzano, a Portland-based fisherman who is chairman of the shrimp section's advisory panel, said this season is a loss. "We're trying to make the impossible work," he said. "The numbers just didn't work. They didn't work for the processors and they didn't work for the harvesters."