DFO stock assessment predicts return to 'average' year for capelin
Capelin stock was close to a post-collapse high in 2024 says stock assessment biologist Ron Lewis
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) scientists are predicting Newfoundland and Labrador's capelin stock will be smaller in 2025 than it was a year ago.
"Our capital stock was close to its post-collapse high in 2024 and this was likely due to good feeding conditions as well as a very good sea ice timing in the year related to our biomass forecast for last year," said DFO stock assessment biologist Ron Lewis on Tuesday.
Lewis said it looks like 2025 will be different.
"We're predicting a somewhat more average year class for 2025," he said. "What we've observed in the immediate preceding years is a food availability and biological conditions that are more average and it predicts for us basically a decline in biomass and a return to kind of more average levels for 2025."
The DFO says the capelin acoustic biomass index was 647 kilotonnes in 2024, according to its spring survey, and 333 kilotonnes in 2023.
The capelin stock collapsed in 1991 and the fisheries department says the stock remains well below the 1982-1990 period when thousands of kilotonnes were found annually.
WATCH | Sea ice and feeding conditions likely contributed to 2024 capelin numbers:
The department says it will be holding advisory meetings with stakeholders in the coming weeks.
It says stock assessment advice, input from stakeholders, and fisheries policy, will be considered in developing this year's management approach.
In 2024, the total allowable catch (TAC) for capelin was 14,533 tonnes and 97 per cent of that TAC was landed.
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