Research Document - 2003/048

Status of snow crab populations in the St. Lawrence Estuary and the Northern Gulf of St. Lawrence from 1999 to 2001

By Dufour, R. and Dallaire, J.-P.

Abstract

This document reviews the status of the snow crab stocks in the estuary and northern Gulf of St. Lawrence from 1999 to 2001. It contains all biological and management information on snow crab that was used to produce the annual stock status reports for zones 13 to 17 for the above period.

The last age class of the previous wave of recruitment was available to the fishery in 1994. Afterward, the less abundant age class groups caused a decrease in the commercial catch rates and exploitable biomass and an ageing of the population. The most recent wave of abundant age class groups (age classes 1988 - to 1992) began to recruit to the exploitable population in 1997 but its effect was not felt the same way in each of the areas. In the west (Area 17), the biomass strongly increased and the average size of the crabs caught decreased further to the arrival of the new recruitment. However, in the area 16, a decrease in growth and a premature terminal moult of a certain amount of the males was noticed so that the effect of the wave was not as pronounced as in Area 17. These effects would have been more marked in the eastern sectors (Areas 15 to 13), where the wave is not still perceptible in the fishery. Indeed, the recruitment in those areas is weak and does not allow an increase of the exploitable biomass. The difference in productivity combined with an intense exploitation in the east lead to a very critical situation and the conservation of the resource is compromised.

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