HUNGRY EYE

Shrimp, A Mystery

Get ready for one delicious scoop!

BY DIANE HUDSON

Every December my mind wanders away from the holidays to Pandalus borealis, or baby Maine shrimp—the inimitable, one-of-a-kind treat that thrilled my senses from the moment I arrived in Maine in the 1970s till the very recent past. Now’s the time the season traditionally starts, so my Pavlovian shrimp nose twitches big-time as I begin my quest, optimistically asking around, “Are they back?”

GONE BABY GONE No such luck. Research reveals that, shockingly, these delicacies have been unavailable for almost a decade. A moratorium placed on the shery in 2014 has not been li ed since, and this past fall, the At-

lantic States Marine Fisheries Commis-

sion (ASMFC) extended it till 2024, with talk of a permanent closure. Say what?!

It appears that the culprit is climate change. e Gulf of Maine is one of the fastest-warming bodies of water on the planet, and scientists have warned that this cold-water species cannot adapt to the rising temperatures. According to a recent report from the ASMFC, the number of shrimp able to spawn in 2021 was “extremely low,” and “recent environmental conditions continue to be unfavorable” for them to make a comeback, with voracious new predators—speci cally the long n squid—drawn by the warmer waters likely contributing to their demise.

New England shermen traditionally caught millions of pounds of shrimp every winter, with the catch topping 10 million pounds in the 1990s and exceeding that total in 2011, but then dropping to 5 million pounds in 2012 and collapsing in 2013 with a woeful haul of less than 800,000 pounds.

FORGOTTEN DELICACY Spencer Fuller, a veteran in the shrimp business for 45 years (president, Resource Trading Company, and shrimp product manager for Cozy Harbor Seafood, Inc., once the largest shrimp processor in the state) questions the ongoing moratorium placed on the industry. “ is shrimp species has been around for 15,000 years and has survived huge cycles in the climate, both hot and cold, and has maintained itself. e Maine shery for a long time

shery. e only shrimp survey is done by [Northeast Fisheries Science Center] out of Woods Hole, Massachusetts. ey should be using the boats and the shermen who catch the shrimp to come up with the data.”

SURVEY SAYS: SUSPENDED

Starting in 2017, the ASMFC regulators did take that approach to monitoring shrimp activity during the early years of the moratorium, with a sampling program allowing eight participating trawlers and ve trappers to seek and sell their shrimp catch. I spoke with one of the shermen, David Osier, out of Bristol, who took part in this project.

“I ran the boat myself, the Lori Ann. We did very good only [being] allowed 1200 pounds one day a week, for eight weeks. We caught our limit every time except for the last week, but that was in March and [the shrimp] were moving out then. ey come in from deep water and lay their eggs in January and February, then they work their way back out into the deep water. We used to start shing in December and go 15–20 miles o shore and follow them right in to Pemaquid Point and then follow them back out in the spring. But for this research, we were doing it just the opposite of the way we would sh. ey started us late in the season, in February, as they wanted to let the shrimp lay their eggs. BUY CATCH GOLD “ ere are probably not as many as there used to be, but they’re out there. We see shrimp come in with the ground sh— they fall out of the nets. ey should let us have a minimum season—maybe a 30day season. Is that too much to ask? If the shrimp aren’t there, the guys won’t go. At Osier’s wharf we used to bring in 800,000 to a million pounds of shrimp. It’s the only shery I know of that you can shut o 100 percent.”

We both miss the sweet taste of these little treasures. “We used to boil them with the heads on, then dip them in butter, like lobster,” he says. “So good.” TMichaels500hPortlandMag2205.qxp 3/11/22 3:35 PM Page 1

NOSTALGIA CASTS A WIDE NET Kendall Delano, owner of Delano Seafood Market in Waldoboro, tells me he bought the entire catch (1200 pounds) from Osier every week during the sampling. “We were getting $10 a pound for them, and folks had to sign up in advance to get them. In the middle of winter, there’d be long lines of customers lined up outside the one day a week to get those Maine shrimp. But for nine years now, I’ve been buying Canadian [baby] shrimp

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