2024 - Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence snow crab Conservation harvesting plan for crab fishing area 12 (12, 18, 25, 26)

Moncton and Quebec – March 22, 2024

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) releases the details of the 2024 snow crab fishery Conservation Harvesting Plan for the Crab Fishing Area (CFA) 12 (18, 25, 26).

Quota

The Total Allowable Catch (TAC) in CFA 12 is 22,236.68 t. Details of the sharing of the TAC can be found in the CFA 12 snow crab administrative list.

Quota reconciliation

Quota reconciliation is applied in this fishery. Any individual quota overrun incurred by licence holders in one season will be deducted, on a one-for-one basis, from their individual quota for the following season. It is the responsibility of the licence holders to track their quotas to ensure that catches taken in the course of their fishing operations comply with the quotas allocated to them.

Temporary quota transfers

Licence holders who are subject to the owner-operator policy may transfer up to 50% of their initial quota on a temporary basis, within the same fishing season and within the same DFO administrative area (Eastern New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Gulf Nova Scotia and Quebec). No transfer of traps will be authorized during a temporary quota transfer.

Partnership arrangements

The creation of partnerships is authorized and both licence holders must be present on the boat during the fishing activities. The number of traps to be used cannot be greater than the legal number of traps authorized for one snow crab licence, plus 50 percent of the number of authorized traps of the other licence (partner).

Any overrun incurred from the previous year must be communicated and acknowledged by the licence holders entering the partnership since DFO will deduct the amount of overrun from the combined quota of the partnership.

Fishing Gear Reporting System (or Lost Gear Reporting)

Fish harvesters are encouraged to create an account and report their data through the lost gear system at this website: Sign in (dfo-mpo.gc.ca). The requirement to report lost and retrieved gear is a condition of licence.

New in 2024

• The validity period of the conditions of licence will be valid until July 7, 2024 to align with the licence holder's requirement to report the species at risk logbook that can occur until that date. There is no change to the season date closure; all crab traps and catches must be removed from the waters on or before 23:59 hrs (Atlantic Daylight Time) on June 30, 2024.
• Starting in 2024, Notices of Fishing Prohibition to protect North Atlantic Right Whales (NARW) will be enforced through a clause newly added in the licence conditions, rather than issuing Variation Orders.
• The Notices of Fishing Prohibition will prohibit setting traps in grids where NARW have been detected.
• The Notice to Fish Harvesters will now refer to "prohibited grids" and "revoke prohibited grids" instead of using "open" and "closed" terminologies.
• Tag colours:
• Only one valid annual tag per trap. Tags from previous years must be removed.
• Licence holders must obtain their tags from suppliers approved by the DFO, a list of which is available at: Approved Tag Suppliers (dfo-mpo.gc.ca).

2024 Management measures

Unless indicated otherwise, existing management measures remain in place. Please refer to your snow crab licence conditions for further details. The current management measures include, amongst others:

• At-sea observer coverage representing 20% of fishing trips.
• A soft-shell crab protocol is in effect and will be applied if situations of persistent concern are observed.
• 100% dockside monitoring.
• Landings must be weighed in kilograms on an electronic scale with a memory.
• The use of a vessel monitoring system (VMS) with 5 minutes reporting intervals.
• Hail out telephone numbers: fish harvesters from both Gulf and Quebec Regions will be required to dial the following telephone number (new since 2023): 1-833-699-2013 (toll free) or 1-506-431-3223 (satellite phone only) for new hail, modified hail, and cancelled hail.
• Requirements to use of a paper logbook or electronic logbook. Refer to the following list of Prequalified Logbook Suppliers for paper logbooks. The use of an ELOG is voluntary in 2024, but highly recommended. Additional information on Electronic logbooks (ELOGs) can be found on the DFO website: Electronic logbooks (ELOGS) (dfo-mpo.gc.ca).
• Maximum mesh size of 75 mm.
• The licence holder/operator is prohibited from discarding in Canadian fisheries waters any material that may be harmful to fish or fish habitat.
• The inshore regulations require inshore commercial licence holders, and their approved Substitute Operators, to keep records of all the crew members working aboard the vessel on every fishing trip. These records must be maintained by the licence holder for a period of 5 years.
• Trap limits:The trap limits are maintained in 2024 and there will not be any additional traps for the traditional “midshore” fleet this coming season.
• The Irving Whale Exclusion Zone is maintained.
• A delayed season opening to June 1st applies to an area in CFA 12 for one nautical mile bordering on CFA 19. The buffer zone between CFAs 18 and 19 remains in effect.
• The 2022 Criteria for access to Crab Fishing Area 12 by Areas 12E and 12F fish harvesters in case of closures of the fishing grounds is maintained.
• Provisions of the Banc-des-Américains Marine Protected Area Regulations apply to licence holders. In order to comply with them, please refer to clauses that apply to your fishing activities: http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/2019/2019-03-06/html/sor-dors50-eng.html.
• The Opening Date Committee is assessing conditions and will recommend a targeted opening date. Opening the fishery is subject to safety at sea, weather conditions and to DFO operational requirements as described in the Terms of Reference for Setting the Opening Date for the Fishery. The opening date will be confirmed in a separate Notice to Fish Harvesters and by the issuance of a variation order. 
• The fishery will close on June 30, 2024, at 23:59 hrs (Atlantic Daylight Time). All gear must be removed from the water by the end of the day June 30th, meaning that the hauling of gear is prohibited after June 30th, but landing of traps and crabs can occur on July 1st.

Management measures to minimize interactions with North Atlantic Right Whales

The 2024 management measures to minimize interactions with North Atlantic Right Whales (NARW) will be communicated separately and posted online at the following link: Fishery notices related to North Atlantic right whales (dfo-mpo.gc.ca).

The requirements to minimize the length of rope floating on the surface of the water remains in effect:

• The total cumulative length of rope between a primary buoy and a secondary buoy shall not be more than 3.7 metres.
• No rope attaching a crab trap to a primary buoy shall remain floating on the surface of the water after the crab trap has been set.

Note: A primary buoy is defined as a buoy or other floating device attached to a crab trap. A secondary buoy is defined as a buoy or other floating device attached to a primary buoy.

All the requirements for gear marking remains in effect and the information on gear marking measures have been published in a Notice to Fish Harvesters that is available at the following link: colour-notice-avis-couleur-eng.pdf (dfo-mpo.gc.ca).

Marine Mammal Interaction Form

• Marine mammal interactions (bycatch, collision and sightings of marine mammals entangled in fishing gear) must be reported by completing the form that is available online at Fish-Harvester-Form-Eng.pdf (dfo-mpo.gc.ca) and must be submitted as per the instructions provided on the form.