Tracadie, New Brunswick (NB), Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (PEI) and Antigonish, Nova Scotia (NS) – June 13, 2022 - Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is announcing the management measures for the rock crab fishery in Lobster Fishing Area 25 (LFA 25) in 2022.
Fishing Season
The summer fishing season in LFA 25 will open at 6:00 a.m. on June 27, 2022 and will remain open until July 30, 2022. These season dates comply with the practice of opening the fishery on the last Monday in June until the last Saturday in July. DFO wishes to remind fish harvesters to take extra care when navigating on the opening day of the fishery as vessels are loaded with gear and traps. Harvesters are encouraged to act diligently in setting their traps and should ensure that vessels are loaded safely by reducing the quantity of gear if necessary.
Opening and closing dates for the fall fishery will be published in a subsequent Notice to Fish Harvesters.
NEW in 2022
Discarding waste
In 2022, all commercial fisheries in Canada have a new condition of licence relating to the discharge of garbage from Canadian fishing vessels. The licence holder/operator is prohibited from discarding in Canadian fisheries waters from their vessel anything that may be harmful to fish or fish habitat. Refer to the Notice to Fish Harvesters sent on April 7, 2022 for further details: Commercial fishery requirements.
Fishing gear reporting system (or Lost Gear Reporting)
A new online system was launched in July 2021 to allow commercial harvesters to conveniently input lost and retrieved gear information from any smart electronic device. The system is able to capture information such as descriptions, cause of loss and location of the lost gear. Fish harvesters can create their account and begin reporting their data through the system at this website: Fishing Gear Reporting System.
Management measures in place for the 2022 fishing season
Gear Marking: Gear marking is in place in this fishery. Details of these requirements can be found in your licence conditions and at the following Internet address: Notice to Fish Harvesters: Update to the conditions of licences related to the mandatory colour scheme for gear marking in Eastern Canada.
Management measures to minimize interactions with North Atlantic right whales: The management measures to protect the right whales are available at the following Internet address: 2022 fishery management measures.
Biodegradable mechanisms: The use of biodegradable mechanisms on all traps, including modified lobster traps, is mandatory. Please refer to your licence conditions for specifications on these biodegradable mechanisms.
Data entry: The licence holder is responsible to enter into an agreement with a Dockside Monitoring Company for data entry of catch and effort information; a condition to this effect is included in all licences.
Logbooks: Crab Logbook/Landing Report are mandatory and must be completed as stipulated in the licence conditions.
Dockside Monitoring Program: All of the catch must be weighed in kilograms at one decimal point on an approved scale.
Number of traps: 100 traps
Catch limitation:
Commercial licences – 25,000 kg
Communal commercial licences – 35,000 kg
Community licences – 35,000 kg
Minimum size: Only male rock crab may be retained. No rock crab that is less than 102 mm in carapace size (width) may be retained.
DFO will continue to apply the exploitation principle that prioritizes the rock crab fishery as follows: by-catch in the lobster fishery, bait for the lobster fishery and then directed rock crab fishery.