Arlington, VA – The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section has maintained the current moratorium on northern shrimp fishing through the 2025 fishing year. This action responds to the findings of the 2024 Stock Assessment Update, which indicates the northern shrimp stock has been at low levels of biomass for over the past decade despite the fishery being under a moratorium since 2014. The Update found no improvement in stock status and 2023 summer survey indices of abundance, biomass, and recruitment were the lowest in the 1984-2023 time-series.
Given the loss of the summer shrimp survey and continued industry interest in data collection, the Section approved a pilot industry-funded winter sampling program for 2025 with a research set-aside quota of 26.5 metric tons (or approximately 58,400 pounds). The pilot sampling program is scheduled to run through March or until the quota is reached, whichever is sooner. The goal of the program is to continue the winter time series of biological data for shrimp by collecting samples similar to those that might have been collected under an active commercial fishery. Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts will work in the coming weeks to outline the provisions of the pilot sampling program, determine a start date, and select the number of participants.
The Section also approved for public comment Draft Amendment 4 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Northern Shrimp. Draft Amendment 4 considers options for extending the specifications timeframe to allow for longer moratoria (i.e., two-, three-, or five-year moratoria as opposed to setting a closed season annually). The Draft Amendment also considers adding recruitment and temperature triggers to the management toolbox that could signal when biological and/or environmental conditions are favorable to support stock rebuilding and a sustainable fishery. Finally, Draft Amendment 4 considers adding the specifications setting timeframe to measures subject to change through adaptive management by providing an option for the timeframe to be changed via an addendum rather than an amendment.
Public hearings on Draft Amendment 4 will be conducted in 2025; the details of which will be released in a subsequent press release.
For more information, please contact Chelsea Tuohy, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at ctuohy@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.