The New England shrimp fishery will remain closed for at least another three years.
Federal regulators said Thursday they found no improvement in northern shrimp stock status and new lows in abundance. The fishery has been closed for about a decade.
But last winter, Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts launched an industry-funded sampling pilot to learn more about the fishery in a warming of Gulf of Maine.
Seven of the nine participating fishermen were from Maine.
Fishermen were allowed to harvest up to 58,400 pounds of northern shrimp during the pilot. But they caught just 70 individual shrimp, totaling less than three pounds, according to regulators with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.
Despite poor weather during the sampling pilot, "exceptionally low catch levels reinforce concerns about viability of the northern shrimp stock in the Gulf of Maine," regulators said in a recent report summarizing the pilot.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said most environmental conditions for northern shrimp have also been poor throughout the moratorium, though two measures did improve over the past year.
Regulators could consider opening another limited harvest in 2027 or 2028 if certain conditions are met, the commission added.
