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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 35 Number 4
December 2007
Shrimp: 152-day season, no control date
PORTSMOUTH, NH – Following through on the “conditional commitment” it made to industry last year, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Northern Shrimp Section voted at a Nov. 14 meeting here to adopt a 152-day shrimp season from Dec. 1, 2007 through April 30, 2008 with no mandatory days off.
The fishery is one day longer than last season because February 2008 contains 29 days, making it a leap year.
The section, at the strong urging of industry, also made a “conditional commitment” to maintain a Dec. 1-April 30 season in 2009 – with the understanding that the fishery could be “constrained” by limiting the number of fishing days per week based on updated information from next summer’s stock assessment survey aboard the Gloria Michelle.
And finally, the section considered a request from industry advisers to establish a control date that could possibly lead to limiting the number of vessels in the fishery in future.
Uncomfortable with the control date request given the divided feelings among fishermen in the room – many of whom did not attend the advisory panel’s Oct. 25 meeting when the topic was extensively discussed – the section decided against taking action.
However, section Chair Ritchie White of New Hampshire charged Brad Spear, ASMFC’s shrimp plan coordinator, with developing a proposal to detail “how we could look at this issue more closely.”
The section will review the proposed approach at a future meeting.
2008 season
Last year, the section adopted a 151-day season for 2007 and said it planned to endorse the same length season in 2008 as along as fishing mortality, landings, and numbers of trips stayed below certain trigger points.
None of the triggers was tripped. Fishing mortality, which came in at 0.09, was well below the .20 trigger. Preliminary 2007 landings, at 3,374 metric tons (mt), were well below the 8,000-mt trigger. And the preliminary tally of number of trips, at 2,392, was well below the 7,000-trip trigger.
As a result – and because the exploitable biomass of shrimp remains large – technical committee (TC) Chair Maggie Hunter of Maine said the TC “does not oppose a 152-day season for 2008.”
Hunter said this year’s catch should be dominated by four-year-old females from the “strong” 2004 year class, as well as five-year-old females from the “moderate” 2003 year class.
Furthermore, the TC estimated that fishable biomass at the start of the 2008 season would be 32,000 mt, up considerably from the “time series low” in 2001 of 4,300 mt.
Overall, the TC concluded that “short-term prospects” for the fishery were “good.”
Section members asked those in the room about market prospects.
John Norton of Cozy Harbor Seafood, a major buyer of northern shrimp, said, “I think the markets are going to be somewhat stronger – not crazy-strong, but stronger.”
Norton guessed the market possibly could absorb another one-to-two million pounds of shrimp above the roughly 7.4 million pounds landed in 2007.
“All in all, I think the volume and the economics will be a little better this year, but not by a change in magnitude,” he said.
Glen Libby of Port Clyde, ME said fishermen in his area were committed to trying out double Nordmore grates to reduce the number of small shrimp in the catch, which would help the resource and markets by reducing the count per pound.
“We’re going to go build these things and try them out to see if they work,” he said. “The buyers could probably confirm if they work.”
About 2009 season
While the TC was at ease with a 152-day fishery for 2008, Hunter said it was worried about the “weak-to-moderate” 2005 year class and the “very weak” 2006 year class, which may have been a “recruitment failure.”
“The ’06s are what we’re most concerned about,” she said. “The cautionary note this year is about what you’ve got coming down the road for youngsters.”
Hunter said the TC recommended that the section not make a commitment to the 2009 season. Scientists first wanted to see next summer’s survey results from the Gloria Michelle cruise, she said.
Advisory panel Chairman Terry Alexander said industry members present at the panel’s Oct. 25 meeting agreed to support the TC’s 152-day season for this year, even though many thought the stock could withstand more effort.
“With the biomass at this level, there’s really no biological reason we should not have 180 days,” he said.
However, counter to the TC, Alexander said industry also wanted the section to set a 2009 season.
“We think it’s important for us to be able to plan next year’s fishery,” he said. “We can make adjustments next year and we’ve got all kinds of safety nets in place. We should have a chance to forecast out for next year. That way people can plan how they’ll use their groundfish days-at-sea or fish their lobster traps.”
New Hampshire industry adviser Peter Kendall added, “We don’t want to throw it wide open. We want to conserve the resource. But there’s got to be a minimum number of days to hold this industry together. We can’t go back to the 40-day seasons we had a few years ago because you’ll collapse the industry again.”
Processors’ view
Processors also said they needed to plan for the future.
“If we’re going to be competing on the world market with this product, we can’t be waiting until November to know our season,” said Norton. “Our buyers are going to go with the sure thing, which is the Canadian product.”
Norton urged the section to set a 151-day season for 2009 with a fishing mortality limit of .22, which is the target/threshold in the shrimp plan and what Norton considered to be the crux of resource protection.
“If we cross over .22, then you look at it again,” he said.
“The number of trips doesn’t make any difference and, to a certain extent, catch doesn’t make a difference. Look at the fact that we’re at .09 and the target is .22. We have a lot of headroom there,” Norton said.
Roland Hurtubise of Tang of the Sea, who just made a $200,000 investment in a state-of-the-art peeling machine, said he wanted to ensure the fishery remained healthy for 2009. He advocated cutting back on the spring-end of the season, particularly to husband the weak to moderate 2005 year class, which would be caught in the spring as small males further offshore.
“A spring fishery has always concerned me,” he said. “I would much rather back off in April. I don’t want to hurt that ’05 year class.”
’04 year class?
Before making final decisions on either season, section members spoke about numerous concerns they had with the stock assessment surveys.
Last year, the TC said the 2004 year class was a record breaker – off the charts. But during this summer’s survey, the 2004 year class was greatly diminished, and it wasn’t due to fishing activity.
Hunter said the TC might have overestimated the size of the year class during the 2006 survey. But the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s 2006 fall bottom trawl survey indices for shrimp also were extremely high, backing up the Gloria Michelle survey findings.
Furthermore, even though overall fishing mortality in 2007 was low at 0.09, catch rates were phenomenally high, indicating a large abundance of shrimp.
The 2007 Gloria Michelle cruise found a very different and much smaller 2004 year class.
“So where are they?” asked Massachusetts section member Paul Diodati. “What bothers me is if the shrimp that were out there did diminish quite a bit and it wasn’t as a result of the fishery, what does that say about sustainability?”
Hunter said the TC couldn’t explain the phenomenon.
“You’ve got to think there’s something going on in the environment. The stock is behaving very unpredictably,” she said.
Portland-base fisherman Marshall Alexander said he hoped section members understood the take home message: environmental factors played a bigger role in the status of the shrimp stock than fishermen.
“I hope you realize that we didn’t do it. It’s a natural thing, yet we always get blamed. We’ve had very little effort on this stock because of the market. I hope you got that,” he said.
Even though industry wanted the section to set a 2009 season for stability, Alexander emphasized, “The industry group has been very conservative. We care more about this resource than every one of you around that table, believe it or not, because we use it to feed our families.”
Season setting
Section member George Lapointe of Maine said he was comfortable with a 152-day season for 2008 given the TC advice. Furthermore, he supported “conditionally committing” to 2009, recognizing the section might need to limit the number of fishing days per week if next year’s survey indicates a cut-back is warranted.
“This is classic shrimp,” said Lapointe. “They go up and they go down. When they go up, we want people to take advantage of them, and when they go down, we want to exercise caution.”
New Hampshire section member John Nelson had reservations, citing concerns about the weak 2006 year class and only weak-to-moderate 2005 year class.
“This is not a rosy picture we see after ’07. There’s nothing coming along after that,” he said.
“What if we come back next year and the survey shows a flatlining?” Nelson asked. “We don’t want people’s hopes to be totally built up and then next year we may need draconian cuts. Maybe we want to do something more measured. I think we need to be cautious for the future. We don’t know what we’ll have for a resource next year.”
Lapointe, however, thought 151 days – with potential days out each week – was a measured, conditional response for 2009.
“What this says is we are exercising caution,” he said. “This is not setting unrealistic expectations, but it’s not doom and gloom either saying we expect to close down the fishery.”
In the end, the section unanimously voted to adopt a 152-day season for 2008 and “conditionally committed” to a Dec. 1-April 30 season for 2009, emphasizing that the number of allowable fishing days per week would be determined following next summer’s assessment.
Control date
Next, the section discussed the advisory panel’s request for a control date (see CFN November 2007 for more details).
Terry Alexander said, “All the industry is asking for is that you start talking about limited entry, and we’d like you to set the control date today.”
While many shrimpers strongly support a control date, it became evident that many did not, especially those from the more eastern part of Maine.
“As far as I know, we’re part of the industry, and we don’t want this,” said South Bristol fisherman Jimmy Fossett. “Leave it open for the young people. The price of fuel and the cost of doing business is more than enough to control the fishery.”
Chuckie Plummer, also of South Bristol, said people in his area hadn’t been aware until recently about any control date discussion. Once it became known, he said, “We talked with a lot of people and we don’t want it.”
Ted Ames of the Stonington Fisheries Alliance echoed those sentiments, saying the resource wasn’t readily available to fishermen Downeast in recent years.
“If you put in a control date now, you eliminate the whole eastern half of the state,” he said.
Supporters countered back.
Portland-based fisherman Vincent Balzano said he, personally, didn’t like limited entry, but the industry was at a point where it had no choice.
“It’s just the world we live in now,” he said. “We have 150 vessels not making money. If you add another 150 … it’s irresponsible to allow people in when it’s not economic. People will make investments. How are they going to get it back?”
Balzano also pointed to the mid-1990s when many more people participated in the fishery and effort was higher.
“And then look at the aftermath,” he said, referring to huge stock declines and draconian cuts in season length. “It stinks.”
Diodati was uncomfortable with a control date because only five vessels are currently active in the fishery in Massachusetts. However, participation historically was much higher.
“I’d have a very difficult time even picking a date,” he said.
Lapointe also wasn’t prepared to act.
“This latent effort thing has been out there for a long time. I think there are a lot of other ways to constrain this fishery,” he said. “I’m opposed to setting a control date because it sends a message that we want to use it in the future.”
Diodati suggested the section host a workshop to more fully discuss the issue and better characterize historical effort.
And that led to White tasking Spear with developing a proposal for how to gather more information on the subject.
Janice M. Plante
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