Science Advisory Report 2019/006

Fishery and Stock Status of the Sea Scallop (Placopecten magellanicus) from the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence to 2016

Summary

• The sea scallop fishery in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence (sGSL) is a competitive fishery with fishing effort and landings mostly concentrated on three beds (West Point, Cape Tormentine and Pictou) within Scallop Fishing Areas (SFA) 22 and 24, all within the Northumberland Strait area.
• Reported landings have declined from approximately 900 t in 1968 to around 100 t since 2002. Preliminary reported landings in 2016 were 66 t.
• There is a large amount of latent effort in this fishery. Just under 20% of the 770 licence holders were actively fishing in 2016, based on reported landings.
• Missing and inaccurate sales slip and logbook information are the main drivers of uncertainty of the landings and the effort data that are used in this assessment.
• Catch rates derived from logbook information are generally low (6 kg per h) and decline rapidly within a few weeks of the fishery opening in most areas.
• Depletion models were used to develop relative indices of annual fishery exploitable biomass and exploitation rates. Despite the uncertainties in the data and the modelling assumptions to be respected, there is evidence of a rapid depletion over a period of a few weeks of the estimated exploitable biomass in the major scallop beds in SFA 22.
• Indices of commercial sized biomass of scallop from research surveys on the major beds in singular years provide further evidence of relatively high exploitation rates in this fishery taking place on a stock at low abundance.
• The abundance indices, based on catch rates and densities, of scallop in the southern Gulf are considered to be at low levels relative to other areas of eastern Canada.
• Biological characteristics data from research surveys show evidence of recruitment (< 80 mm shell height) in each SFA surveyed.
• There is no information available from the sea scallop stock of the sGSL with which to define abundance and removal rate reference points as per the Precautionary Approach.
• There are no current indicators that could be used to signal if a significant unexpected change in stock status has occurred. However, indices to assess performance of the fishery, including landings and catch rates, could be provided by major beds that support the fishery in the sGSL.

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  This Science Advisory Report is from the October 16 and 17, 2018 Regional Peer Review meeting of the fishery and stock status of the sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus) from NAFO Division 4T, southern Gulf of St. Lawrence. Additional publications from this meeting will be posted on the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Science Advisory Schedule as they become available.

  

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