Research Document - 2001/087
An Assessment of Newfoundland and Labrador Snow Crab in 2000
By E. G. Dawe, H. J. Drew, P. C. Beck, P. J. Veitch, R. T. Warren and R. L. Costigan
Abstract
Data on catch rate, size (carapace width, CW), sex, maturity, egg development and molt status (shell condition and chela allometry) from the 1995-2000 fall multispecies bottom trawl surveys were used to infer resource status of Newfoundland and Labrador snow crab (Chionecetes opilio) in NAFO Div. 2J3KLNO. These surveys are conducted near the end of the fishing season and so are considered to provide an index of residual biomass. Legal-sized and prerecruit males were broadly distributed throughout much of the survey area but were absent from Div. 2GH and 3M, some inshore areas, and across much of the shallow southern Grand Bank. The exploitatable biomass available to the Div. 2J3KLNO fishery in 2001 is expected to be not substantially different from that of the previous year. Annual changes in projected exploitable biomass were not consistent among divisions or size groups, reflecting annual and spatial variability in trawl catchability. The exploitation rate has increased regularly since 1997 but this has apparently had minimal impact on reproductive potential. Biomass of mature females has declined since 1995 throughout Div. 2J3KLNO but sex ratios of adults continue to favor males and there is no evidence of any decrease in mating success of females.
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