Local fishermen are up against another shortened shrimp season and a potentially devastating cut to cod catches.

The Seacoast’s iconic fishing industry has been struggling for years to remain financially viable while abiding by ever changing and often restrictive rules to conserve marine life—the very resources their businesses depend on. 

Now regulators are considering a drastic cut in allowable cod catches, or even a complete forbiddance of catching this pivotal fish, and the winter’s shrimp season has been shortened and limited to three days per week.

“Things are not looking good for our fishermen here and fishermen in the Gulf of Maine,” said Doug Grout, chief of the Marine Fisheries Division at the New Hampshire Fish & Game Department.

According to this year’s preliminary survey, the cod stock was much lower than the previous assessment suggested in 2008. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service recently called for a meeting in Portsmouth with New England  fishermen and industry experts to go over the possible outcomes.

Regulators indicated a possibility of cutting allowable catches of cod by up to 90 percent. Grout said that in New Hampshire, that’s not much better than the worst case scenario of shutting cod fishing down altogether.

“It would be just devastating,” he said. “You might as well not have a fishery.”

New Hampshire fishermen would take the worst hit, data suggests. If cod catches were cut by 90 percent, groundfish revenues could be cut by 91 percent, Grout said, because the smaller ships common here can’t go safely offshore in search of other species. In Maine, more than 50 percent of groundfish revenues could be lost.

“Even before we were getting this dismal news, there was a very serious concern about the viability of the entire groundfish industry,” Grout said.

That’s because the news comes on top of an analysis of recent “catch share” strategies that says New Hampshire has suffered most of all from new management approaches, Grout said. The state lost 39 percent of groundfish revenues from 2009 to 2010, while other states’ revenues were unaffected.

“We may not have a ground fishing industry in New Hampshire unless something changes,” he said.

Cod makes up the largest percent of groundfish revenue of any species in New England.
“It’s clearly going to be devastating for everyone,” Grout said.

He said fishermen have been providing fresh, local seafood in this area since the nation was founded.

“It’s one of the reasons people came to try and find America, because they heard there was good cod,” he said. “Now we could be facing the economic collapse of our fishing industry.”

Grout said he was shocked by what he heard at the meeting last week.

In 2008, regulators said there was still overfishing of cod, but the mortality rate had been reduced and the stock was rebuilding. And, since new measures would be enacted, the stock was expected to be fully rebuilt by the next assessment, three years later, he said.

But, he said, even though the stock has more than doubled over the past 15 years, regulators are still calling for huge cutbacks.

The 2005 assessment suggested that spawning of cod was well above average, Grout said, and many small cod showed up the following year. But he doesn’t know why more haven’t shown up recently, especially since fishermen say they are finding it easy to catch cod.

“It’s hard for fishermen to understand why it doesn’t jive with what they're seeing,” he said.

In January, a peer review is anticipated from international experts, who will either agree that the recent assessment is based on the best science available, make suggestions to improve it, or reject it, Grout said. He also said that, in an initial meeting, these same experts didn’t express any major concerns with the science.

Another meeting is planned for early February in Portsmouth with the Fisheries Management Council. Fishermen hope they will at least settle on a direction to go in.

“It’s a very, very dire situation for us here in New Hampshire,” said Padi Anderson of Rye, who owns the Rimrack fishing vessel with her husband Mike. They both attended the recent meeting.

Anderson said there are good indicators that the problem is the science, not the fish stocks. She said assessments should be done more often than every three years.

“It’s not adequate,” she said.

The Andersons sell shrimp off their boat in Rye Harbor and she said most fishermen with small boats will be impacted by this season’s limitations.

She said having the option of being able to go out on the boat any day of the week to catch shrimp gave them time to make up for bad weather. But she hopes that the season will be extended after landings are assessed on Jan. 19.

“The bottom line is we want to keep a healthy fishery,” Anderson said. “Hopefully, it can be done in a fair, reasonable way.”

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section set the trawl season to start on Jan. 2, with a total allowable catch of 2,000 metric tons. Fishermen are allowed to shrimp on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Although shrimp abundance in the western Gulf of Maine has declined since 2006, the previous two years showed favorable conditions and the seasons were relatively long. The results of the 2011 stock assessment update indicate the northern shrimp stock is not where everyone hoped it would be.

Grout said changes to the management plan allow for more timely landing data, with weekly reports from dealers. The amendment also lets regulators set daily trip limits and days off. So, he said, they should be able to monitor and maintain stocks better.

One reason stocks have been in decline, he said, is because the region is starting to see the first effects of climate change. He said the Gulf of Maine has been two degrees warmer on average this year, and shrimp have had poor spawning success and a much slower growth rate in recent years. 

Though it may be a difficult shrimp season, Anderson hopes to diversify her operation. Scallop season starts Dec. 15 and the Rimrack will be offering “day boat” dry scallops, much fresher than the sometimes two-week old product from deep sea fishermen.

“It’s another seafood people don’t realize is available right here,” she said.