SOUTH PORTLAND – Regulators decided Thursday to increase the catch limit for the current shrimp season by about 10 percent, an amount that fishermen and processors say won’t do enough to help their industry.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section voted to increase the total allowable catch in the Gulf of Maine from 2,000 metric tons to 2,211 metric tons.

Additional Photos

Marine scientist Michael Sissenwine questioned at least one regulator figure for determining the proper shrimp catch limit, but was cautious about how high the limit should go. Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

Michael Norton, CEO of Cozy Harbor Seafood, told regulators that more shrimp are needed to meet demand. “When we can’t fill our customers’ orders, they go elsewhere,” he said. Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

The commissioners, who represent Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, approved that proposal after rejecting another to increase the limit to 3,000 metric tons.

“It was a throwaway vote” that will not support the industry’s jobs or meet market demand, said John Norton, owner of Cozy Harbor Seafood in Portland, which has 175 workers. “When we can’t fill our customers’ orders, they go elsewhere,” he said.

The season began Jan. 2 for trawlers. Trappers will be able to start fishing Feb. 1.

Last season, regulators imposed a 136-day limit on fishing with the intent of limiting the harvest to 4,000 metric tons. The actual harvest was 5,920 metric tons, said Tina Berger, a spokeswoman for the commission. The catch quota is new for 2012.

Industry representatives opposed the quota for this season, saying it would cause them to lose overseas markets and hurt fishermen who rely on shrimping in the winter to supplement their work in groundfishing or lobstering the rest of the year. They organized an online petition at SaveOurShrimp.org and arranged for outside scientists to present findings supporting a larger quota.

On Thursday, an overflow crowd of more than 150 people attended the commission’s meeting at the Marriott hotel in South Portland. Commissioners were presented with 1,581 signatures collected through the online petition drive.

Steven Cadrin, a fisheries scientist from the University of Massachusetts, said that in one of the statistical models they relied on, regulators weren’t using the right value to represent shrimp mortality. Cadrin concluded that a 4,500-metric-ton limit would be acceptable.

Another scientist, Michael Sissenwine, questioned the shrimp mortality rate being assumed, but was more cautious about whether the 4,500-metric-ton limit would be appropriate.

“There are good arguments not to go that high. … There are arguments that you could go that high,” said Sissenwine, a visiting scholar from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

Patrick Keliher, one of Maine’s representatives on the commission, proposed a limit of 3,000 metric tons after the scientists’ presentations.

“I continue to remain concerned about some of the discrepancies we’re hearing about in the science,” said Keliher, who is acting commissioner of Maine’s Department of Marine Resources. He said the use of an incorrect figure in determining a quota can have a great impact on the industry, the vast majority of which is based in Maine.

Since the season opened, an estimated 426 metric tons of shrimp have been landed. Maine fishermen have landed 353 metric tons, while those in Massachusetts and New Hampshire have landed 23 metric tons and 49 metric tons, respectively.

Last year, the value of shrimp landings totaled $10.5 million, according to Save Our Shrimp. Norton says Maine’s shrimp fleet totaled about 280 boats last year and employed about 1,500 people, between boat crews, processing workers, truckers and dock workers.

Vincent Balzano, a Portland-based fisherman who is chairman of the shrimp section’s advisory panel, said this season is a loss.

“We’re trying to make the impossible work,” he said. “The numbers just didn’t work. They didn’t work for the processors and they didn’t work for the harvesters.”

Staff Writer Ann S. Kim can be contacted at 791-6383 or at:

akim@pressherald.com

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