Abstract
In commercial snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) fishery, the catch efficiency of the conical pots is important for increasing the profitability of the industry. This study evaluated the effect of adding green and white light emitting diodes (LED) on the catch efficiency of commercially used conical pots. The results from the field experiments showed that inserting artificial lights significantly increases the catch efficiency for snow crab over the minimum landing size of 95 mm carapace width of up to 76% when using green LED, and by 52–53% on average when using white LED. This study shows that it is possible to improve the catch efficiency of the snow crab fishery by applying artificial LED lights to the conical snow crab pots, potentially resulting in an important economic benefit to the snow crab fishery.
Highlights
Snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) is a cold-water species that is distributed over the Arctic, inhabiting areas of the north-west Atlantic (Canada and west Greenland) and northern Pacific Oceans [1]
We investigated the effect of adding white and green light emitting diodes (LED) lights on the catch efficiency of conical snow crab pots in the Barents Sea snow crab fishery
Our results showed significant differences in catch efficiency between pots with and without LED lights
Summary
Snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) is a cold-water species that is distributed over the Arctic, inhabiting areas of the north-west Atlantic (Canada and west Greenland) and northern Pacific Oceans [1]. It is an invasive species in the Barents Sea, where its presence was first recorded in 1996 [2] and where a population began to establish between 2004 and 2006 [2]. The catch rates of snow crab started to increase from 2019, and for 2021, the quota is increased to 6500 tonnes [6]
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