Lumpfish fishery logbook, NAFO Division 4R and subdivision 3Pn

Description

This project addresses knowledge gaps to help assess the status of the lumpfish resource in NAFO Division 4R and subdivision 3Pn. Improvements to fisheries management of lumpfish are expected. Female lumpfish are harvested for roe and the males are returned to the water. The viability of released male lumpfish is presumed to be high but little data exists about how many male lumpfish are caught. In this project, Biologist Johanne Gauthier of the Maurice Lamontagne Institute in Mont-Joli, Quebec, and her team will provide lumpfish harvesters with logbooks to record data on catch, effort, sex ratio, length frequency distribution by sex, and bycatch. In this fishery, landings statistics are almost exclusively in the form of roe weight. The weight of roe is evaluated after it has been drained for some time. This project aims at estimating a conversion factor for use in estimating fish landed weight from roe landed weight. Data will be presented at the next 3Pn 4RS lumpfish peer review scheduled for February 2019 and published in a science advisory report after the peer review of February 2019.

Program Name

Fisheries Science Collaborative Program (FSCP)

Year(s)

2017 - 2018

Ecoregion(s)

Atlantic

Principal Investigator(s)

Johanne Gauthier
Maurice Lamontagne Institute, Quebec Region

Co-leader(s)

Monty Way
Fish Food & Allied Workers Union (FFAW)