Regulators To Decide If Maine Shrimp Season Is On

Federal regulators are set to being the process of determining whether there will be a commercial fishing season for northern shrimp in 2014-15.

The commission's Northern Shrimp Section's meeting on the subject is scheduled for Wednesday at the Urban Forestry Center in Portsmouth, NH. The commission will likely make a decision this fall about whether to hold the coming season.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission closed the shrimp season in the Gulf of Maine for 2013-2014 for the first time in more than 30 years because shrimp populations dipped to their lowest recorded levels.

The shutdown impacted fishing businesses in Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.The commission's decision to shut the 2013-14 season came after a harvest that was the smallest since the last shrimp shutdown in 1978.

[Associated Press]