The latest assessment of northern shrimp stocks in waters off Nova Scotia is giving some in the industry hope after more than a decade of struggle.

Allan McLean, senior operations manager at Louisbourg Seafoods, said the company hires 70 to 80 people in Cape Breton to process shrimp. But declining shrimp numbers in the eastern Scotian Shelf and subsequent quota reductions have made it tough on business.

Nova Scotia had landings of more than 24 million kilograms of shrimp in 2014, compared to only 15 million kilograms in 2024, according to  open data at DFO.

There is a silver lining, though. 

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ 2025 assessment published last month shows a slight increase in the species’ biomass — a calculated measure of the total weight of the species in the area — for the second year in a row.

It also suggests the number of young shrimp is stabilizing.  

“So seeing that, you know, gives us hope,” said McLean. “It’s been a tough 15 years. But we always believed in this fishery.”

While the improved numbers will not have an immediate impact on the allowable catch, they come after a sharp decline in 2023 that itself followed years of poor numbers.

DFO aquatic biologist Raphaël McDonald said it’s hard to pinpoint a single cause for declining numbers, but factors such as water temperature could have played a role, since this shrimp species seems to prefer colder waters. 

“There’s two possibilities as to what the temperature might be telling us,” he said. “It could be a proxy for other environmental factors that we don’t have a lot of information about because it could be related to food availability. It could be related to the timing of the spawning that it’s influencing.”

McDonald said there’s likewise not one specific factor that may be responsible for the improved numbers.

Temperatures at the ocean bottom declined slightly in 2023 and 2024, which may have contributed to better spawning conditions. 

However, according to an industry and DFO northern shrimp trawl survey, temperatures in 2025 actually rose, which could impact this year’s young shrimp. 

McDonald said the increased number of young shrimp is a positive sign but they need to mature to begin reproducing. 

All northern shrimp are born male and transition to female at about four years old. 

“So we use the weight of female shrimp in the water as a proxy for the reproductive capacity of the stock and we refer to that as spawning stock biomass,” he said. 

The assessment notes spawning stock biomass increased by 11.3 per cent in 2025 compared to 2024. 

The assessment emphasized the species remains in a “cautious zone,” meaning researchers will continue to keep a close eye on its numbers. 

Future of northern shrimp fishery

Louisbourg Seafoods does not depend solely on northern shrimp, as it processes other species like snow crab, redfish, lobster, sea cucumbers and mussels. 

But McLean said his company has also brought in shrimp from Norway in recent years to process to keep plant operations stable.

He said if numbers continue to improve, he hopes his company can go back to relying solely on locally fished northern shrimp. 

“We’re cautiously optimistic, but we will continue to take a conservative approach in this fishery as we move forward,” said McLean, noting that changes on the commercial side will not be seen until at least 2028.

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