Tag Archives: warming ocean temperatures

Snow crab stock projected to remain healthy, for the most part, in 2024

Fisheries and Oceans Canada released its annual stock assessment on snow crab Tuesday in St. John’s, and the data indicates the stock remains on par with last year with no major changes.  That means the stock is projected to remain healthy for the majority of fishing areas around the province, with one exception. The 2HJ zone off the east coast of Labrador remains in the cautious zone, similar to last year’s assessment.  But the positive news may be a result of an ocean cooling period that happened between 2012 and 2018.  Snow crab flourish in colder water, allowing young crab the ability to grow to exploitable age and size. That’s between nine and 13 years old with a shell size of over 94 mm for males. Female crab cannot be retained by harvesters.  more, >>click to read<< 15:06

How warming ocean temperatures wiped out Maine’s shrimp industry

Since 2014 fishing for northern shrimp has been banned in the United States. The stock in our area has decreased to the point where they are not reproducing. This is not due to overfishing; it is directly due to the temperature of the water. They have simply moved north to colder Canadian waters. Back in 2007, when there was a robust northern shrimp fishery in the Gulf of Maine, scientists were looking for net modifications that would catch shrimp but not have any bycatch of finfish. Since shrimp fisheries throughout the world have some of the highest bycatch of any fishery, this was a priority worldwide. At that time the Northeast Consortium at the University of New Hampshire helped fund research by Dr. Pingguo. He and David Goethel developed a trawl net, named “The Topless Trawl,” that drastically reduced bycatch in the northern shrimp fishery. >click to read< 10:21

Canada Wraps-Up Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization Annual Meeting – A Mixed Bag

VIGO, SPAIN — On the heels of this year’s Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) Annual Meeting, Fisheries and Oceans Canada highlighted the various management decisions taken by the Organization, with a view to ensuring conservation and sustainability. Read the rest here 18:38