More than a decade after a moratorium was placed on shrimp fishing in the Gulf of Maine, the Maine Department of Marine Resources announced last month that a short, experimental fishing season for Northern shrimp — Pandalus borealis — would be held in February.
Thirty fishermen applied for the shrimp-fishing permits, and the department will select seven boats in total to harvest up to 58,400 pounds. It’s a tiny fraction of the millions of pound of shrimp Maine fishermen would catch each year prior to 2013, when the moratorium was enacted due to low population levels.
While it remains to be seen how the experimental season will go, many Mainers likely remember the days when trucks selling Maine shrimp for only a few dollars a pound were parked on the sides of coastal roads. The tiny, pink crustaceans are renowned for their sweetness and delicacy, with some people even eating them raw, straight from the container.
For those that love Maine shrimp, we want to know: what’s your favorite way to eat them? Sautéed with a little butter and garlic? Quickly boiled and tossed with mayo for shrimp salad? Battered and deep-fried? Let us know your favorite shrimp dishes or recipes, and what you’d do — and how much you’d pay — for a pound of one of the sweetest delicacies from the Gulf of Maine.