Assessing the Technical and Economic Viability of Galvanizing Snow Crab (Chionoecetes opilio) Traps
Commercial harvesting of snow crabs (Chionoecetes opilio) began in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, in 1967. Today, the fishery consists of 2188 active fishing licenses and has grown into the province’s most economically valuable fishery. Snow crabs are captured using conical traps consisting of a...
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ftmemorialuniv:oai:research.library.mun.ca:16408 2024-04-21T07:59:46+00:00 Assessing the Technical and Economic Viability of Galvanizing Snow Crab (Chionoecetes opilio) Traps Brown, Peter Wilfred Araya-Schmidt, Tomas Bungay, Terry Winger, Paul D. 2024-03-19 application/pdf https://research.library.mun.ca/16408/ https://research.library.mun.ca/16408/1/Assessing%20the%20Technical%20and%20Economic%20Viability%20of%20Galvanizing%20%281%29.pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes9030109 en eng MDPI https://research.library.mun.ca/16408/1/Assessing%20the%20Technical%20and%20Economic%20Viability%20of%20Galvanizing%20%281%29.pdf Brown, Peter Wilfred <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Brown=3APeter_Wilfred=3A=3A.html> and Araya-Schmidt, Tomas <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Araya-Schmidt=3ATomas=3A=3A.html> and Bungay, Terry <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Bungay=3ATerry=3A=3A.html> and Winger, Paul D. <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Winger=3APaul_D=2E=3A=3A.html> (2024) Assessing the Technical and Economic Viability of Galvanizing Snow Crab (Chionoecetes opilio) Traps. Fishes, 9 (3). p. 109. ISSN ISSN 2410-3888 cc_by Article PeerReviewed 2024 ftmemorialuniv https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes9030109 2024-03-27T17:51:20Z Commercial harvesting of snow crabs (Chionoecetes opilio) began in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, in 1967. Today, the fishery consists of 2188 active fishing licenses and has grown into the province’s most economically valuable fishery. Snow crabs are captured using conical traps consisting of a mild carbon steel frame, hard plastic entry funnel and a jacket of polyethylene netting. The frames of these traps corrode over time, which is expedited by being deployed in marine environments and stored on land near the ocean when not in use. As a result, there is interest within the community to increase the longevity of crab traps. One solution is to galvanize the steel frames prior to installing the funnel and netting. However, before harvesters transition to galvanized traps, two questions must be answered. Will the use of galvanized steel negatively impact catch rates? Will the life cycle of a crab trap be extended sufficiently to justify the additional cost of galvanizing? This study employed a generalized linear mixed model to evaluate the catch of legal-sized male crabs (CPUE) during the commercial fishery as a function of three trap frame treatments (old traditional, new traditional and new galvanized). We also assessed the economic viability of galvanizing trap frames by evaluating the life cycle cost (LCC) of traditional and galvanized traps to the harvester. The LCC was calculated over a range of inflation (0–6%) and discount (3–20%) rates. Our results found no significant difference in CPUE between new traps (traditional vs. galvanized) and concluded that except during instances of very high discount rates (12.9–19.9%), it is economically favourable to galvanize crab trap frames. Article in Journal/Newspaper Chionoecetes opilio Newfoundland Snow crab Memorial University of Newfoundland: Research Repository Fishes 9 3 109 |
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Memorial University of Newfoundland: Research Repository |
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ftmemorialuniv |
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English |
description |
Commercial harvesting of snow crabs (Chionoecetes opilio) began in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, in 1967. Today, the fishery consists of 2188 active fishing licenses and has grown into the province’s most economically valuable fishery. Snow crabs are captured using conical traps consisting of a mild carbon steel frame, hard plastic entry funnel and a jacket of polyethylene netting. The frames of these traps corrode over time, which is expedited by being deployed in marine environments and stored on land near the ocean when not in use. As a result, there is interest within the community to increase the longevity of crab traps. One solution is to galvanize the steel frames prior to installing the funnel and netting. However, before harvesters transition to galvanized traps, two questions must be answered. Will the use of galvanized steel negatively impact catch rates? Will the life cycle of a crab trap be extended sufficiently to justify the additional cost of galvanizing? This study employed a generalized linear mixed model to evaluate the catch of legal-sized male crabs (CPUE) during the commercial fishery as a function of three trap frame treatments (old traditional, new traditional and new galvanized). We also assessed the economic viability of galvanizing trap frames by evaluating the life cycle cost (LCC) of traditional and galvanized traps to the harvester. The LCC was calculated over a range of inflation (0–6%) and discount (3–20%) rates. Our results found no significant difference in CPUE between new traps (traditional vs. galvanized) and concluded that except during instances of very high discount rates (12.9–19.9%), it is economically favourable to galvanize crab trap frames. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Brown, Peter Wilfred Araya-Schmidt, Tomas Bungay, Terry Winger, Paul D. |
spellingShingle |
Brown, Peter Wilfred Araya-Schmidt, Tomas Bungay, Terry Winger, Paul D. Assessing the Technical and Economic Viability of Galvanizing Snow Crab (Chionoecetes opilio) Traps |
author_facet |
Brown, Peter Wilfred Araya-Schmidt, Tomas Bungay, Terry Winger, Paul D. |
author_sort |
Brown, Peter Wilfred |
title |
Assessing the Technical and Economic Viability of Galvanizing Snow Crab (Chionoecetes opilio) Traps |
title_short |
Assessing the Technical and Economic Viability of Galvanizing Snow Crab (Chionoecetes opilio) Traps |
title_full |
Assessing the Technical and Economic Viability of Galvanizing Snow Crab (Chionoecetes opilio) Traps |
title_fullStr |
Assessing the Technical and Economic Viability of Galvanizing Snow Crab (Chionoecetes opilio) Traps |
title_full_unstemmed |
Assessing the Technical and Economic Viability of Galvanizing Snow Crab (Chionoecetes opilio) Traps |
title_sort |
assessing the technical and economic viability of galvanizing snow crab (chionoecetes opilio) traps |
publisher |
MDPI |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
https://research.library.mun.ca/16408/ https://research.library.mun.ca/16408/1/Assessing%20the%20Technical%20and%20Economic%20Viability%20of%20Galvanizing%20%281%29.pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes9030109 |
genre |
Chionoecetes opilio Newfoundland Snow crab |
genre_facet |
Chionoecetes opilio Newfoundland Snow crab |
op_relation |
https://research.library.mun.ca/16408/1/Assessing%20the%20Technical%20and%20Economic%20Viability%20of%20Galvanizing%20%281%29.pdf Brown, Peter Wilfred <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Brown=3APeter_Wilfred=3A=3A.html> and Araya-Schmidt, Tomas <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Araya-Schmidt=3ATomas=3A=3A.html> and Bungay, Terry <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Bungay=3ATerry=3A=3A.html> and Winger, Paul D. <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Winger=3APaul_D=2E=3A=3A.html> (2024) Assessing the Technical and Economic Viability of Galvanizing Snow Crab (Chionoecetes opilio) Traps. Fishes, 9 (3). p. 109. ISSN ISSN 2410-3888 |
op_rights |
cc_by |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes9030109 |
container_title |
Fishes |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
3 |
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109 |
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1796940430882897920 |