The Northern Shrimp in the Red

2019-04-20

Hugo Bourdages

For a long time after Northern shrimp were first harvested, in the 1970s, landings of this species in the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence gradually increased. They went from 10,000 tonnes in 1985 to more than 35,000 tonnes in 2010. However, since then, they have declined, reaching only 22,000 tonnes in 2017.

The shrimp fishery is very important to coastal communities in Quebec. In 2017, the value of landings of this species by Quebec fishers reached $28 million, the third highest landed value after snow crab and lobster.

The decline in shrimp biomass has been observed by fishers and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) scientists. It is affecting more than 100 fishers from Quebec, the Atlantic provinces, and First Nations communities.

Fishers have noted that commercial catch per unit effort continues to decline, and current levels are comparable to those from the early 2000s. Moreover, certain traditionally fished areas have been abandoned by fishers because of low shrimp biomass.
As for DFO, it has noted that biomass estimates from the scientific survey are close to the low values observed in the early 1990s. A decrease in shrimp concentration area size has also been observed.

Landings and total allowable catch by fishing area

Three factors could explain this decline:

Shrimp recruitment, that is, the number of juveniles, has been low in recent years.
The water temperature in shrimp habitat is rising. The Northern shrimp is a cold-water species, yet it is now found in warmer waters (1 ^oC). The species is vulnerable to the warming of its environment.
Predation on shrimp has increased significantly over the past three years owing to the massive arrival of redfish in the St. Lawrence ecosystem. No DFO scientific survey has ever reported such an abundance of redfish.

In 2017, according to the precautionary approach, shrimp stocks in the Estuary and Sept-Îles were in the cautious zone, a first since 1996. As for shrimp stocks in Anticosti and Esquiman, they were still in the healthy zone, but they are getting closer to the cautious zone.

The outlook for Northern shrimp stocks in the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence is discouraging given low recruitment, warming waters, and increased predation by redfish. In the short term, the downward trend of these populations is likely to continue.