Comment — An improved link between industry, management and science: review of case history of the southwestern Gulf of St. Lawrence snow crab fisher

Abstract

A recent review by Loch et al. (1995) portrayed the snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) exploitation in the southwestern Gulf of Saint Lawrence (eastern Canada) as an exemplary fishery. Industry involvement, better management practices, a unique method for evaluating exploitable biomass, and major insights into the biology of C. opilio were said to have contributed to rebuilding this snow crab stock after a 1987–1989 fishery collapse. I am compelled to reply to Loch and co-authors for two reasons. First, their review contains several unsubstantiated claims and is based on incomplete citation of literature. My commentary addresses only those scientific issues that are critical to resource management and conservation, drawing on information and literature available to the authors in 1994. Second, their review leaves the impression that directed human intervention was a major factor in the increase of the snow crab stock of the southwestern Gulf. While applauding recent advances in science and management, I point out that other snow crab fisheries in eastern Canada also declined between 1985 and 1989 and since then have fared just as well as the snow crab fishery in the southwestern Gulf. This may to a large extent reflect the effects of natural population fluctuations and of environmental change on the levels of fishery recruitment, rather than the effects of regional exploitation and management initiatives.