Regulators shut down Gulf of Maine shrimp fishery, say stock has ‘collapsed’

[jpak]

http://bangordailynews.com/2013/12/03/business/regulators-shut-down-gulf-of-maine-shrimp-fishery-say-stock-has-collapsed/

PORTLAND, Maine — Northeastern regulators shut down the Gulf of Maine shrimp fishery for the first time in 35 years Tuesday afternoon, worried by reports of what researchers called a fully “collapsed” stock that could be driven to near extinction with any 2014 catch.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section, a subset of the multistate agency that oversees North Atlantic shrimp fisheries, met Tuesday in Portland to set guidelines for the coming season.

The 11-person section decided by consensus to wipe out the 2014 season, denying a 175-metric-ton catch limit recommended by its Northern Shrimp Advisory Board.

The panel made its decision against a backdrop of plummeting shrimp populations off the coast of Maine, according to researchers with the commission’s Northern Shrimp Technical Committee.

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[Nihil]

1. Glad that they had the courage to do the right thing.

> The 11-person section decided by consensus to wipe out the 2014 season,
> denying a 175-metric-ton catch limit recommended by its Northern Shrimp Advisory Board.

I wish other fishery controllers had matching courage rather than just giving in
to the demands of the industry and allowing them to destroy species after species.