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Photo gallery - Monitoring green crabs in the field

Our scientists and technicians closely monitor green crabs, an aquatic invasive species that has settled in various locations in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Three days a month, from June to October, two teams each go to three different bays in New Brunswick and two bays in eastern Prince Edward Island to harvest green crabs.

On the first day, they deploy traps in the water. The next day, they return to harvest the small green invaders and take them to the lab for analysis. Before they leave, they put the traps back in the water, and on the third day, they go back to harvest the new crabs from the traps, which they will put away until the next month. Water parameters such as temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen, along with environmental conditions such as vegetation, sediment type and the weather are also measured in those three days.

Green crabs, like many aquatic invasive species, can disrupt our marine ecosystems. Thanks to our teams’ work in the field, scientists have reliable data to help them measure the magnitude of the problem.

For more information, go to the DFO’s page on the European Green Crab.

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