Protection of post-molt male snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) in the southwestern Gulf of St Lawrence: Strategy to avoid discarding mortality offuture recruitment to the fishery ...

• Main Authors: Moriyasu, Mikio, Hebert, Marcel, Wade, Elmer, Miron, Gilles
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: ASC 2006 - Theme session K 2024
• Subjects: Fisheries and aquaculture; Canada; Chionoecetes opilio; Snow crab
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.25258996; https://ices-library.figshare.com/articles/conference_contribution/Protection_of_post-molt_male_snow_crab_Chionoecetes_opilio_in_the_southwestern_Gulf_of_St_Lawrence_Strategy_to_avoid_discarding_mortality_offuture_recruitment_to_the_fishery/25258996

No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author.Snow crab, Chionoecetes opilio, is one of the commercially important species in eastern Canada with total landings exceeding 100,000 mt with corresponding value at 600 million Canadian dollars in 2004. The fishery only fish terminally molted hard-shelled males larger than 95 mm in carapace width (CW). Newly molted males bear soft carapace (soft-shelled crab) during the spring fishing season with significantly lesser weight and meat yield and have no commercial value. As these newly molted crabs constitute the major part of future recruitment to the fishery as well as potential genitor, the protection of these crabs from fishing induced mortality is paramount for the protection of the population reproductive potential and future commercial stock. A mandatory closure protocol by grids or sectors when the incidence of soft-shelled male (SSM) snow crabs exceeds a threshold of 20% was implemented in the southwestern Gulf of St. Lawrence snow crab ...