Latest DFO estimate of crab stocks a mixed bag for fishery

Crab fishermen got good news and bad news earlier this month about snow crab stocks around Newfoundland and Labrador.

The bad news? Snow crab remains near its all-time lowest exploitable biomass — crab that fishermen are allowed to catch — although there has been a slight improvement in the past two years in a couple of areas.

The good news: things are looking up.

DFO's Darrell Mullowney told CBC's The Broadcast recently that the ocean off the province's shores was unusually warm in 2011, but has since cooled to more normal temperatures, more favourable for crab stocks.

"We're optimistic that the climate is actually improving slightly for snow crab, moving forward, and we're going to be looking for small crabs in the population that would respond positively to these recent cooling conditions," he said.

Another factor that affects things, he said, is the fishery.

"Our fishery peaked, most recently, in 2009 at about 53,000-54,000 tonnes, and quotas and landings have since been gradually ratcheted down to be about 34,000 tonnes in 2017, which is a two-decade low, so the fishery has been coming down in scale in recent years."

Off the Grand Bank — the biggest area of crab concentration — biomass is largely unchanged, and the inshore Avalon and west coast areas have continued to decrease, but on the northeast and south coasts of Newfoundland, there have been slight improvements in biomass.

"The Avalon is certainly a concerning area, moving forward, for 2018," he said. "The west coast has shown considerable decrease in biomass in recent years, and it's down to its lowest level in all surveyed areas."