Maine’s Department of Marine Resources has chosen the seven fishermen who will take part in a short, experimental shrimp season due to start in February.
More than 40 fishermen applied for the coveted slots. Four fishermen will be allowed to take shrimp by trawling and three by trapping.
Justin Libby of Port Clyde, Dana Hammond II of South Bristol, Robert Tetrault II of Portland and David Osier of South Bristol have been selected to trawl for shrimp. Adam Gamage of South Bristol, Andrew House of South Bristol and William McLain of Pemaquid will be allowed to trap them.
Before fishing commences, each fisherman will be assigned to one of three geographic fishing regions: Kittery to Phippsburg, Phippsburg to Owls Head, or east of Owls Head.
The tasty, long-prized pink crustaceans have been off limits to local fishermen for a decade because of low population levels, which scientists attribute to climate change and warming waters in the Gulf of Maine.
In December, Maine’s DMR, in cooperation with the Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission Northern Shrimp Board, announced it was seeking fishermen interested in participating in the special winter sampling research program to try and gauge the species’ health and population.
The limited program will only allow Maine shrimpers to cumulatively catch up to 58,400 pounds. Before the shrimp moratorium was established in 2013, Maine fishermen regularly landed more than 10 million pounds in a season.
There’s no guarantee the chosen fishermen will catch any shrimp at all, and there is no state or federal money available to help them recoup any losses. Also, it’s been so long since there was a commercial shrimp industry in Maine that it’s unknown what price they’d fetch at the dock.
Justin Libby of Port Clyde is happy he landed one of the slots. Libby, 44, has plenty of experience shrimping in Maine waters, having first started in 1998. He said he expects to be assigned the easternmost zone, from Owls Head east, and is waiting for confirmation that the season will begin Feb. 1.
Fishermen, including Libby on his 50-foot trawler the Captain Lee, will be limited to fishing one day — of their choice — per week, with a 1,200-pound weekly limit.
Libby said he wishes the rules would allow shrimpers to fish more than one day per week.
“It’s kind of tying our hands,” he said, “because we can’t fish more than just one spot in a day.”
With warmer waters, the shrimp may not be where he used to find them. They may have moved to deeper, colder waters the way many lobsters have, Libby said.
While Libby is uncertain what price he’ll get for the shrimp, he is sure it’ll be worth his effort.
“I’m optimistic,” Libby said. “And if they’re out there, I’ll catch them.”
