Atlantic Fisheries Research Document 1996/123

État des stocks de homard des côtes du Québec en 1995 et analyse des mesures de conservation

By L. Gendron

Abstract

Lobster landings in Quebec in 1995 were up by 6.5% compared with the previous year, increasing from 2,982 t in 1994 to 3,177 t in 1995. This situation contrasts with that of 1994, when landings dropped by 18% compared with the year before. In the Magdalen Islands, the catch increased by 4.6% form 2,007 t in 1994 to 2,099 t in 1995. Landings in the Gaspé rose substantially, i.e. by 18%, from 806 t in 1994 to 951 t in 1995. In 1995, the Magdalen Islands, CPUE values were fairly high (1.44 lobsters/trap/day) at the beginning of the 1995 season and as in previous years, they declined as the fishing season. CPUE recorded two weeks before the end of the season was 3.5 times lower (0.42) lobsters/trap/day) than early in the season, indicating a decline in the number of lobsters available to the fishery. In the Gaspé, CPUE values at the beginning of the fishing season (1.13 lobsters/trap/day) were twice as high as the previous year (0.55 lobsters/trap/day) and much higher than the levels observed since 1988. Temperatures at the beginning of the 1995 season were warmer than the year before (around 3°C), which might partly explain the higher catch rates. The catch rates on the North Shore were much lower than in other regions and comparable to those recorded late in the season in the Gaspé and the Magdalen Islands. In 1994, the exploitation rate in the southern Magdalen Islands was 69% compared with 52% in the northern section. Between 1985 and 194, average exploitation rates in these two sectors were 64% and 53% respectively. As a rule, exploitation rates are higher in the Gaspé, where they averaged 73% between 1986 and 1994. The exploitation rate observed in the Gaspé in 1994, i.e., 67%, was the lowest recorded since 1986. In 1995, the number of pre-recruits in traps was higher than in 1995 in the Magdalen Islands and in the Gaspé compared to 1994. Based on these observations, increases in landing in 1996 could be expected.

The Fisheries Resource Conservation Council (FRCC) tabled a report on lobster conservation in November 1995 in which several measures for achieving the target egg per recruit production level of 5% of an unfished stock were proposed. These include increasing the minimum legal size, marking berried females (V-notch), setting a maximum legal size, reducing exploitation rates, closing fishing areas and using more selective traps. FRCC also proposed that the choice of conservation measures should be left to the industry. Egg production per recruit has been calculated for lobster stocks in the Gaspé and the northern and southern parts of the Magdalen Islands in order to assess the efficiency of each measure proposed by FRCC. These data should help the industry to guide their choices in order to achieve the conservation goals.

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