Maine shrimp are small and sweet, and they are usually only available fresh for a few weeks in winter. The catch is traditionally sort of a holdover season for the local fishermen, who would otherwise not be fishing during those weeks. Last year, however, the state Department of Marine Resources decided that the number of shrimp was so abundant that they let the season linger on until May. The fishermen caught 13 million pounds of shrimp last year, but now officials are saying that the catch was waaaaay too big and has resulted in depleted stocks, so they’re limiting the catch to only a third of that – 4.4 million pounds. The regulators are using a couple of schemes to help stretch out the length of the season, but the conventional wisdom says that most of the quota will have been caught by the end of the month.
Lots of people in New England, myself included, eagerly anticipate the arrival of the little Maine shrimp every winter, but they’ll probably find the price pretty steep if the catch is only a third of what it was last year.
