History states that shrimping winters used to be a part of the cove fleet’s yearly fishing
plan up to about five years ago when a series of poor shrimping years persuaded many draggers to put their small-meshed shrimp nets ashore for good then and replace them with larger-meshed groundfish nets.
According to them poor shimrping seasons were due to low shrimp prices, limited markets and short seasons that often opened after the peak holiday demand time for shrimp and when the shrimp were most abundant nearby. It is told that now groundfish, especially cod, began to rebound inshore then, and fishermen realized a good day’s pay could be earned more quickly and easily groundfishing than shrimping.
Recently cod are abundant year-round off Gloucester, but each harvester can only land 800 pounds a day and must also have the days at sea (DAS) fishing time to catch them. At the time of poor shirmping years the Northern Shrimp Section of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) not only believed the shrimp stock needed rebuilding but also the short seasons, with late starts in January that would give more shrimp a chance to spawn before being netted, could help do this.
The Pigeon Cove shrimpers, along with peers from New Hampshire and Maine, and processors, believed otherwise. Today, the ASMFC deems the shrimp stock healthy and allows its harvesters a 180-day season, from Dec. 1 through May 29 of this year. Locla shrimper said that the shrimp are back, and the market (boat price) is 50 cents per pound. He wouldn’t have quit for so long, but the government (ASMFC) ruined the market and killed the money.
