2019 Rock crab fishery in lobster fishing area 25

Moncton, New Brunswick (NB) – June 13, 2019 – The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), Gulf Region, wishes to advise the industry that the summer fishery for rock crab in Lobster Fishing Area (LFA) 25 will open at 06:00 a.m. on June 24, 2019 and will remain open until July 27, 2019. These season dates comply with the practice of opening the fishery on the last Monday in June until the last Saturday in July.

The fall rock crab fishery will open five calendar days after the closure of the fall lobster fishery (unless the rock crab opening date would fall on a Sunday in which case it will open on the Monday) with the season closure being the last Friday of November. Opening and closing dates for the fall fishery will be published in a subsequent Notice to Fish Harvesters. Licence conditions will be valid for both the summer and fall fishing periods.

Requirement to report lost and retrieved gear:

• As in 2018, the requirement to report lost gear to DFO remains in place.
• NEW requirement - Starting in 2019, licence holders must report the retrieval of any of their own gear previously reported lost to DFO.
• The Lost fishing gear form and the Retrieval of previously reported fishing gear form are included in licence conditions and are now available online.
• The appropriate forms must be completed and submitted within 24 hours of entering to port (new timeframe).

Requirement to report interactions with marine mammals:

• The Marine Mammal Interaction Form will remain included with the licence conditions and must be completed and submitted by email to: DFO.NAT.InteractionsMM-InteractionsMM.NAT.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca unless it is filled out online. The form must be submitted within 48 hours of the end of a fishing trip.

Please refer to the separate notice attached issued on April 12, 2019 for additional information on Management measures to protect North Atlantic Right Whales. A map illustrating the Lobster Fishing Areas and the dynamic management areas subject to temporary closures (dynamic zone) is provided in Annex 1 for information purposes only.

All other management measures remain in place from the 2018 management plan and include:

Biodegradable mechanisms:

The use of biodegradables 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:

Commercial licences – 100 traps.
Communal commercial licences – 100 traps.
Community licences – 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.

For more information