The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), Gulf Region, has opened the summer fishery for rock crab in Lobster Fishing Area (LFA) 25 until July 29.
A notice to fish harvesters from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans indicates the season dates are in keeping with the practice of opening the fishery on the last Monday in June until the last Saturday in July.
The fall rock crab fishery will open five calendar days after the closure of the fall lobster fishery (unless the rock crab opening date would fall on a Sunday, in which case it will open on the Monday) with the season closure being the last Friday of November.
The use of biodegradable mechanisms on all traps, including modified lobster traps, is mandatory. Licence holders are responsible for entering into an agreement with a dockside monitoring company for data entry of catch and effort information. Crab logbook/landing reports are mandatory.
All licences have a limit of 100 traps and there’s a catch limit of 25,000 kilograms for commercial licences and 35,000 kilograms for communal commercial licences and community licences. Only male rock crabs, with a minimum carapace width of 102 mm, may be retained.
