Because the shrimp stock has diminished, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section extended the moratorium on commercial shrimp fishing for the 2017 season; however, there will be trawlers and harvesters going out to take samples, and eventually some shrimp will reach the local market.

That will be through a program coordinated by the Maine Department of Marine Resources,  New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, and the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and designed to provide biological data on the shrimp fishery which is closed for the fourth year in a row. Biological data gathered will include size composition and egg hatch timing. 

Maine participants in the cooperative winter sampling program for Northern Shrimp in the Gulf of Maine were selected from a pool of 60 applicants, based on a random drawing of those fully qualified in each region. Qualifications include a demonstrated shrimp fishing history, and successfully passing a Marine Patrol review of marine resource violations.

Preference was given to trawlers willing to participate in a test of a compound grate for harvesting. Compound grates are devices used by trawlers to reduce the catch of small shrimp.

Maine harvesters chosen include trawlers Vincent Balzano, Joseph Leask, and Rob Tetrault from Western Maine, Troy Benner, David Osier and Arthur Poland, Jr., from the Midcoast, and Randy Cushman and Glenn Libby from Eastern Maine.

The trawlers will be allowed a maximum trip limit of 1,200 pounds, with one trip per week, while the trappers will have a maximum possession limit of 500 pounds per week, with a 40-trap limit per vessel. All participants will provide shrimp samples to the Maine DMR weekly.

Each participant will be required to collect samples each week in one region, and will be allowed to land and sell up to 1,200 pounds of shrimp per trip. 

Shrimp trappers include Chad Gamage, Daryl Chadwick, George Gilbert and Robert Tracy from the Midcoast, and Thomas Riedel from Eastern Maine. They will collect northern shrimp samples in two regions of the Maine coast (four vessels in the Midcoast, and one in Eastern Maine), beginning Jan. 30, once a week, for eight weeks until March 26.

Each trapper will be allowed to fish up to 40 traps, hauled as often as necessary during the project. Participants will be allowed to land and sell up to 500 pounds of shrimp per week. There will be no further compensation.

In total, the sampling program will include the participation of 10 trawlers (8 Maine trawlers, 1 Massachusetts trawler, and 1 New Hampshire trawler) and five Maine trappers, fishing for 8 weeks from mid‐January to mid‐March.

The purpose of the project is to collect northern shrimp samples during the winter period when the shrimp are in inshore waters, to collect data on the timing of the egg hatch, and the size, gender, and developmental stage of the shrimp.  We also hope to collect data on the performance of the compound size-sorting grate.

Information on the sampling program can be found at http://www.maine.gov/dmr/science-research/species/shrimp/winter2017.html.