Small winter catch set for New England's long-closed shrimp industry, a climate casualty

PORTLAND, Maine -- New England shrimp, long lost from the marketplace as waters have warmed, will come back to seafood counters in small amounts next year due to a research fishing program.

Also called Maine shrimp or northern shrimp, the small pink crustaceans were long beloved by seafood fans in winter. But for a decade now, the seafood industry has been under a fishing moratorium for the shrimp because of concerns about low population levels, which scientists attribute to climate change and warming oceans.

That moratorium is going to remain in place as the shrimp population has failed to improve, according to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. Yet because the regulatory body said there is interest in collecting data about the shrimp, this coming winter there will be a fishing industry-funded winter sampling program for them.

The program will allow fishermen to catch up to 58,400 pounds (26,490 kilograms) of the shrimp this winter. It's a far cry from the early 2010s when fishermen caught more than 10 million pounds (4.5 million kilograms) of the shrimp per year. But the program will provide important data to better understand the status of the shrimp population while also allowing a small amount of catch, the commission said.

“The sampling program is intended to run early in the new year from mid/late January through March 2025. Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts are currently working together to finalize the logistics of the program including the start date,” said Chelsea Tuohy, a fishery management plan coordinator with the commission, on Tuesday.

Fishermen long sought the cold water-loving shrimp in the Gulf of Maine, a body of water off New England that has experienced significant warmth in recent years. The commission said in a statement that recent science has found “no improvement in stock status” for the shrimp. The commission has also described the Gulf of Maine as “an increasingly inhospitable environment" for the shrimp.