To say the Northern shrimp fishery has had a few rough years would be more than an understatement.
In fact, not too long ago, many in the industry were starting to talk about the possible end of this once lucrative and profitable fishery.
One cannot understate the growth of the shrimp fishery off northeastern Newfoundland.
The fishery for Northern shrimp began off the coast of Labrador in SFA (shrimp fishing area) 5 in the mid-1970s, primarily in the Hopedale and Cartwright Channels, according to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). Soon after, concentrations of Northern shrimp were located within SFAs 4 and 6 leading to an expansion of the fishery into those areas. As the fishery expanded to the St. Anthony Basin, Funk Island Deep and the slope of the continental shelf in SFAs 4–6 during the early 1990s, total allowable catches (TACs) were increased periodically.
Commercial catches of Northern shrimp increased rapidly from the mid-1990s into the early 2000s within SFA 6, where the resource was considered to be healthy and exploitation low. The majority of the TAC increases in this period were reserved for the development of a small-vessel (less than 100 feet) fleet. Today, SFA 6, off the northeast coast of Newfoundland is the only shrimp fishing area in that region where inshore harvesters are permitted to catch shrimp. The more northern shrimp fishing areas (SFA 4 and SFA 5) are only open to offshore vessels.
The growth of this fishery was a godsend for harvesters that were devastated by the closure of the cod fishery in the early 1990s.
However, in recent years, quotas, particularly for the inshore fleet, have been hit with drastic quota cuts.
Last year, DFO imposed a 16 per cent cut to the inshore Northern shrimp quota in SFA 6 — meaning the total allowable catch for the area went from 10,700 tonnes in 2017 to 8,730 tonnes in 2018.
DFO said the reduction was needed to achieve a 10 per cent exploitation rate.
The cuts in SFA 6 have been dramatic over the last few years. In 2017, the total allowable catch (TAC) was cut by 63 per cent — from 27,825 tonnes in 2016 to 10,400 tonnes. In 2015, the TAC was 48,196 tonnes.
But has this fishery finally turned the corner? Is a once unheard of stock bounce back in the cards for Northern shrimp?
After years of drastic cuts, this year’s much anticipated inshore Northern shrimp quota in SFA 6 was quietly announced without much fanfare and the news was actually positive.
Not only did inshore fishermen hang on to their quota levels from 2018, but there was a slight bump.
DFO announced that the TAC in SFA 6 would be increased by 2.6 per cent to 8,960 tonnes to maintain a 10 per cent exploitation rate. Has the bleeding finally stopped?
This positive news was coupled with a price increase. This year’s price increased to a minimum of $1.78/pound. That represented an 18 per cent increase over the 2018 price and the highest minimum ever for the spring shrimp fishery. Last year’s price was $1.46/pound, up from the 2017 level of $1.25.
As well, across the Atlantic, a glimmer of good news surprisingly came out of the 41st Annual Meeting of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) that took place from September 23–27 in Bordeaux, France.
NAFO agreed to reopen the Flemish Cap shrimp fishery (division 3M) after an increase of the stock to levels above Blim (Biomass Limit: Stock size below which the stock is in serious danger of collapse).
The NAFO Scientific Council recognized “the continuous increase of biomass over five years and that it now has a very low probability of being below Blim. The Scientific Council considers that there is sufficient evidence to allow a small amount of directed fishing of this stock. Considering the uncertainty about the future recruitments and the response of the resource to resumed exploitation, the Scientific Council advises that the catch in 2020 should not exceed the 2009 level (5,448 tonnes).”
The NAFO 3M division fishery, which is mainly prosecuted on the Flemish Cap and is considered to be a separate population of shrimp, began in 1993. Catches peaked at over 60,000 tonnes in 2003 and declined thereafter. However, after declining catches, a fishing moratorium was imposed in 2011.
The allocation scheme for this renewed 2020 shrimp fishery will involve 109 vessels and 2,640 overall fishing days from countries including Canada, Cuba, Denmark, European Union, France, Iceland, Japan, Korea, Norway, Russia, Ukraine and the U.S.
But despite the positive news from SFA 6 and NAFO 3M, other Northern shrimp fisheries are not yet showing signs of a recovery.
This year, the TAC in the northerly SFA 4 was reduced by 31 per cent to 10,845 tonnes (18 per cent exploitation rate (ER) using a two-year average).
As well, the TAC in SFA 5 was reduced by 13.7 per cent to 22,100 tonnes (20 per cent ER using a two-year average).
This was a step backward, as last year, in SFA 5, the TAC was increased to the 2016/17 level of 25,630 tonnes, while in SFA 4, the TAC was maintained at 15,725 tonnes.
Despite the improvement in 3M, NAFO announced that things are not as rosy in the adjacent divisions of 3LNO.
At its recent meeting, NAFO stated that, once again, there will be no directed fishery from its member countries in the 3LNO division in 2020 and 2021 as the stock is below Blim, with no indication of short-term recovery.
This shrimp stock is distributed around the edge of the Grand Bank, mainly in division 3L. The fishery began in 1993 and came under TAC control in 2000 with a 6,000-tonne TAC. Annual TACs were raised several times between 2000 and 2009, reaching a level of 30,000 tonnes for 2009 and 2010. The TAC was then reduced annually until no directed fishing was implemented in 2015.
So, what does all this mean? Is the shrimp fishery more resilient than many gave it credit for? Does this growth in several key areas mean stocks are on the verge of recovering? Right now, it is certainly hard to say. But after years of doom and gloom, it is a safe bet that harvesters would much rather hear about a small growth in stocks rather than more news of overall depletion.
