Once labelled a nuisance, snow crab are now key to Newfoundland and Labrador’s fishing industry, accounting for $274 million of $708 million in landed value in 2016. And that success story has become a problem.
Higher crab prices are masking lower quota. Shellfish numbers are falling off, with no relief in sight.
Aboard the Canadian Coast Guard ship Vladykov this week, crabs captured in Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) traps were being pulled from the water, dumped into orange, plastic baskets, pulled out, measured and categorized before being dumped back. These were among the last of the crab checked for the 2017 inshore survey, ongoing since May.
The survey work has involved about 35,000 crab taken from bays around the province...