GEORGETOWN, ME – Jan. 19, 2012 turned out to be a pivotal day for Maine shrimp trap fishermen. The Northern Shrimp Section of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) was meeting in Portland for a midseason check to see how fast landings were tallying up against the year’s very small total allowable catch (TAC).
The section had opened the 2012 season on Jan. 2 to trawlers, who were restricted to one landing per day on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The trap season wasn’t set to open until Feb. 1, subject to a 1,000-pound daily limit.
Maine trap fishermen, who were part of the standing-room-only crowd on Jan. 19, listened carefully as the section agreed to increase the TAC from 2,000 metric tons (mt) to 2,211 mt, still a painfully small number equivalent to roughly 4.9 million pounds.
Read the rest and much, much more in the July issue of Commercial Fisheries News.
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