Research Document - 2006/084

Tagging of Lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus) in the Northern Gulf of St. Lawrence from 2004 to 2006

By Fréchet, A., J. Gauthier, P. Schwab, F. Collier, and J. Spingle

Abstract

Lumpfish has a circumpolar distribution (Scott and Scott 1988) and its fishery has developed in the Gulf of St. Lawrence since only 1976.

The lumpfish fishery is short as it aims the eggs during spawning which takes place during spring. Our knowledge is limited despite an important economic value.

Through a new funding, this research could be initiated, in collaboration with two fishermen’s organisation from the Northern Gulf.

Tagging was done on close to 2,000 individuals in 2004 and 2005 and only 56 have been recaptured to date. Given that the tagging occurred after the fishing season, the individuals tagged in 2004 were vulnerable to the 2005 and 2006 fisheries while fish tagged in 2005 were only exposed to capture in 2006.

Ninety percent of the recaptures occurred at less than 35 km of the initial tagging, these limited movements tend to show local aggregations (at least during the lumpfish fishery) which may prove to be vulnerable to overexploitation.

Complete document (PDF, 300 KB)

Accessibility Notice

This document is available in PDF format. If the document is not accessible to you, please contact the Secretariat to obtain another appropriate format, such as regular print, large print, Braille or audio version.