Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans released its annual stock assessment on snow crab, finding that the stock remains on par with last year and signaling there will likely be little change in 2024 quota.
According to the CBC, the stock assessment showed the snow crab fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador – one of the region's most lucrative fisheries – remained relatively stable, with the exception of area 2HJ. That zone remains in the “cautious” category, which is a spot it was also in last year's assessment.
Though there is likely to be little change in 2024, scientists signaled that warm waters could have an impact on the state of the stock in the future.
"We've been in a warming period since 2018. Now, in 2023, it was a little bit closer to normal than 2022 and 2021, which were ... quite warm," DFO Biologist Julia Pantin told the CBC. "I think what we need to do is keep looking at these small sizes of crab. We are seeing fewer of them, so there's going to be fewer to grow into exploitable size, presumably. The small crab coming up through and hopefully reaching exploitable size is something really important to keep an eye on."
The Fish Food and Allied Workers Union (FFAW) had a mixed reaction to the new assessment, though FFAW President Greg Pretty welcomed the likely merger of two fishing areas in zone 3L.
“A significant amount of work by volunteer harvesters and union staff has gone into the Precautionary Approach [PA] for snow crab. The new 3LNO assessment division will improve how the crab PA is applied,” he said. “As long-time harvesters have repeatedly reminded us all, linking Bonavista Bay and St. Mary’s Bay did not make much biological sense.”
Snow Crab Fleet Chair Trevor Jones said the science “is not what we had hoped to have seen.”
“We recognize there are things that affected the fishery of 2023, such as a late start to the season and a high level of predation in 3K4, but we also recognize the fishery didn’t perform as well as we would have liked,” he said. “We will take all this and the science advice into consideration when making our recommendations to DFO for the upcoming season.”
The assessment comes as the FFAW and the Association of Seafood Producers (ASP) – which represent fishermen and seafood processors in the province, respectively – are gearing up to negotiate a minimum price for snow crab.
The snow crab market hit some turbulence when the fishery saw big quota increases in 2022 that only got bigger in 2023 – even as demand for snow crab plummeted. The result was snow crab prices plummeting in 2023 and remaining low ever since.
Price negotiations occur between the FFAW and ASP, which try to agree on a minimum price paid to harvesters based on market conditions. However, if those negotiations result in no decision, the final say on price is left up to the Newfoundland and Labrador Standing Fish Price-Setting Panel.
For the past two years, negotiations have failed and even after the panel made its decision, the process remained contentious. Intense negotiations in 2022 led to calls for new management and changes in how the price process works, with the province subsequently reviewing ways it could avoid future conflict.
Despite those efforts, in 2023, negotiations were even more difficult. After the Newfoundland panel decided on a price of CAD 2.20 (USD 1.62, EUR 1.49), many fishermen refused to go fishing, claiming the price was too low to make it economically feasible. That led to a six-week standoff on pricing that finally ended on 19 May 2023.
That standoff had multiple consequences. The DFO extended part of the season in Newfoundland after fishermen ended up leaving significant portions of quota in the water. That, in turn, resulted in an independent arbitrator deciding the FFAW is liable for costs related to the tie-up, labeling the action a strike that violated the Fishing Industry Collective Bargaining Act and the Master Collective Agreement.
