Environment and Outdoors

Warm Waters Further Threaten Depleted Maine Shrimp Fishery

Maine Public | By Associated Press

Published August 8, 2021 at 9:58 AM EDT

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In this Jan. 6, 2012 file photo, northern shrimp, also called pink shrimp, lay on snow aboard a trawler in the Gulf of Maine. Maine's long-shuttered shrimp fishing business has a chance to reopen in the coming winter, but the warming of the ocean threatens to keep the industry shut down. A regulatory board is scheduled to make a decision in the fall of 2021 about whether to extend a moratorium on the shrimp fishery that is scheduled to end this year.

PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s long-shuttered shrimp fishing business has a chance to reopen in the coming winter, but the warming of the ocean threatens to keep the industry shut down.

Maine shrimp were once a winter delicacy, but the fishery has been shut down since 2013. Scientists have said environmental conditions in the warming Gulf of Maine are inhospitable for the cold water-loving shrimp.

A regulatory board is scheduled to make a decision this fall about whether to extend a moratorium on the shrimp fishery that is scheduled to end this year.