Food
Shrimp Fishing Banned in Gulf of Maine Due to Ocean Warming
Kaye Spector | December 9, 2013 9:56 am | Comments
Tweet

Warming ocean waters in New England have caused shrimp populations to fall so low that shrimp fishing in the Gulf of Maine has been banned for the 2014 season.

That means the small Maine shrimp sold by stores and served by restaurants will get scarce or disappear entirely. Often called bay shrimp or pink shrimp, the small tails are typically used in salads. The shrimp are often sold frozen and are available across the U.S. and around the world.
Illustration credit: Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission

Illustration credit: Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section, which represents Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, last week approved the moratorium after an assessment showed the northern shrimp stock is overfished.

The situation is so dire that it’s possible the ban could be extended for more than a year. The Section considers the stock to have completely collapsed with little prospect of recovery in the near future.

Many fish in the Gulf of Maine are not surviving long enough to mature—a process called recruitment—due to increasing water temperatures and a decline in phytoplankton, which comprises the shrimp’s diet, the Section said.

“Given the overwhelming evidence of recruitment failure and stock collapse and continuing unfavorable environmental conditions, the Section felt it was necessary to close the 2014 fishery to protect the remaining spawning biomass and allow as much hatch to take place as possible,” Terry Stockwell, the Northern Shrimp Section chairman, said.

“When environmental conditions are poor, the ability of the stock to withstand fishing pressure is reduced,” Stockwell said. “With the stock at all time lows and only failed year classes to come, there is even greater loss of resilience for this stock.”

Northern shrimp stocks in other areas of the world like Greenland, Flemish Cap and Grand Banks have also seen decreasing trends in abundance and recruitment, providing additional evidence that environmental conditions are impacting northern shrimp across their range.

Northern shrimp populations in the western Gulf of Maine has declined steadily since 2006 and stands at the lowest in recent history. Although the 2013 season was classified as a “do no harm” fishery, the fishing mortality rate was still above the target—even though only 49 percent of the total allowable catch was harvested.

The commission serves as a deliberative body of the Atlantic coastal states, coordinating the conservation and management of nearshore fishery

Lets just go on pretending this is not happening. And the fisherman can go to plan B-Another Planet.

Based on precedent, the real issue is over-fishing. Look at this quote from another article:

"The shrimp harvest averaged about 25 million pounds a year from 1969 to 1972 before falling below 1 million pounds in 1977, leading to a closure of the fishery a year later. There were similar down cycles in the late 1990s and early in the last decade. After each bust, the industry had to rebuild after losing customers."

So when the annual shrimp haul declined from 25 million lbs. to almost nothing in the 1970s, did global warming cause that too? Or was it simply a matter of over-fishing?

[www.pressherald.com]

Good job finding that article, HH. I wonder if Google puts all the pro-global warming articles on the first pages because I was having difficulty finding one that expounded on the 'overfishing' angle.

*********************

Just saw this article which explains why it's so cold because of Man-Made Global Warming - (Except the first sentence is incorrect - [www.breitbart.com] )

How Global Warming can make Cold Snaps Even Worse -

[qz.com]

"Snow and ice are disappearing from the Arctic region at unprecedented rates leaving behind relatively warmer open water, which is much less reflective to incoming sunlight than ice. That, among other factors, is causing the northern polar region of our planet to warm at a faster rate than the rest of the northern hemisphere. (And, just to state the obvious, global warming describes a global trend toward warmer temperatures, which doesn’t preclude occasional cold-weather extremes.)

Since the difference in temperature between the Arctic and the mid-latitudes helps drive the jet stream (which, in turn, drives most US weather patterns), if that temperature difference decreases, it stands to reason that the jet stream’s winds will slow down. Why does this matter?

Well, atmospheric theory predicts that a slower jet stream will produce wavier and more sluggish weather patterns, in turn leading to more frequent extreme weather. And, turns out, that’s exactly what we’ve been seeing in recent years. Superstorm Sandy’s uncharacteristic left hook into the New Jersey coast in 2012 was one such example of an extremely anomalous jet stream blocking pattern.

When these exceptionally wavy jet stream patterns occur mid-winter, it’s a recipe for cold air to get sucked southwards. This week, that’s happening in spectacular fashion."

***************************

(Put this one in your arsenal, RHB )

I liked it better when Man-Made Global Warming was making it warmer rather than colder.

HH wrote-Based on precedent, the real issue is over-fishing.

With 60 percent of the world getting its protein from the oceans Over fishing is a big problem yes, But water thats to hot here on the Banks record water temps, shrimp stock canot survive. Anyway thats how All the fisherman whos lives depend on this run of shrimp will tell you its the record water temp causing stock colapse.
But you all know better than the fisherman.

Science Carl Sagen said is nothing but a candle in the dark! At best.

free to pick- darkness or stumble with the candle????

I know very little on this subject even being that my family owns the last indepently Fishermans Cooporitve dock market and boats In Point Pleasant NJ.
and have been fishing these grounds we speak of for over a hundred years.
Yeh over fishing you say, I say and all the fisherman at the coop say temp but again what would we Know?
School fish, Shrimp if given a lttle time come back fast but they need habbit not hot not ascidic not full of crap from our litle impact 12 million barrels a day that is f...king out of th math somehow.
Common sense gone with the wind.
Yes over fishing Oil acidic waters temps, the Oceans are not dying, They are being murderd by mans blinds eye to reality.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/2014 01:01AM by riverhousebill.