Ethan Butler, a crewman of the fishing vessel Bottom Dollar, unloads a catch of crab at the wharf on Southside Road in St. John’s during the 2022 crab fishing season in N.L. Keith Gosse/The Telegram
In those areas the exploitable biomass — the estimated combined weight of male crab with a shell width greater than 94 mm — has remained steady, or has grown, over the past four years. Pantin said they also use information from logbooks submitted by fish harvesters after the fishing season.“In any given year, all logbooks may not be collected by the time of the stock assessment,” said Pantin. “So, often the current year is considered preliminary and that is the case for snow crab.
Looking at how much time it takes to catch crab, and comparing that data with previous years, can be an indicator of crab abundance.