Research Document - 2010/107

Preliminary results from the groundfish and shrimp multidisciplinary survey in August 2010 in the Estuary and northern Gulf of St. Lawrence

By H. Bourdages, D. Archambault, B. Bernier, A. Fréchet, J. Gauthier, F. Grégoire, J. Lambert, and L. Savard

Abstract

In 2010, the annual summer survey for the assessment of abundance and distribution of groundfish and shrimp in the Estuary and the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence was conducted from August 2nd to September 1st onboard the CCGS Teleost. One of the primary objectives was to estimate abundance indices for the main groundfish species (particularly cod, Greenland halibut, Atlantic halibut and redfishes – fasciatus and mentella -), and for the Northern shrimp, and to identify the spatial distribution and biological characteristics of these species. Other objectives included monitoring the biodiversity of Estuary and the northern Gulf and describing oceanographic conditions observed in August.

This report describes preliminary results on the catch rates and distribution of 18 taxa, as well as their size frequency distribution. These results were compared with results from the historical survey series that began in 1990, taking into account the equivalency factors used to convert the data from the tandem CCGS Alfred Needler-URI to the tandem CCGS Teleost-Campelen. In 2010, the abundance and biomass indices of many species were stable or decreased compared to 2009. In fact, the two redfish species (Sebastes fasciatus and S. mentella), cod, black dogfish, white hake and longfin hake show index values below the historical series means. Even if the Northern shrimp and snow crab indices presented a small decrease, they were in the range of the historical series means. Six species (Atlantic halibut, Greenland halibut, hagfish, American plaice, witch, thorny skate) showed an increase for their indices in 2010. Except for Greenland halibut, the indices for these species were among the highest values of their respective historical series. Besides the fact that no fishing activities took place along the southwestern part of Newfoundland due to mechanical problems, the geographic distributions of catches recorded for the different species in 2010 showed the same pattern as in previous years.

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