Fisheries Committee on April 3rd, 2019

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Good afternoon, everyone.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), we are studying the migration of lobster and snow crab in Atlantic Canada and the impact of changes to lobster carapace size.

Today we have witnesses from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. We have Mr. Hardy, manager of the fisheries and ecosystem sciences division, gulf region. We have Ms. Orok, director of fish population science and acting director general of ecosystem science, national capital region; Mr. Mullowney, biologist, shellfish science, Newfoundland and Labrador region; and David Whorley from resource management operations.

Welcome to you all.

I believe, Ms. Orok, you're going to start off but you're sharing your presentation.

[Rowena Orok, Director, Fish Population Science and Acting Director General, Ecosystem Science, National Capital Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Members of the committee, I'd like to thank you for inviting us here today. This is an opportunity for us to provide an overview of the DFO science assessment and monitoring of snow crab and lobster fisheries in Atlantic Canada. The mandate of the DFO science organization is to provide information and advice for decision-making. In the context of fisheries, this means providing information on the status of populations, giving advice on levels of sustainable harvest, and using ecological information to make inferences about the current and future health of the population. In this way, the DFO science program supports the conservation and sustainable use of Canada's fisheries resources.

DFO science has approximately 2,000 staff, located across the country in 13 science facilities. These scientists, biologists, researchers, technicians and support staff support a variety of programs, including fisheries science. We undertake monitoring of fisheries in Canada's oceans, conduct research that addresses questions relevant to our mandate, and use this information to generate advice through the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat. This work is often done collaboratively with industry, universities, research institutes, other federal departments, and provincial and territorial governments. We also work with scientific counterparts internationally. Assessing the state of Canada's fish stocks is one of the most critical functions we undertake. It provides the fundamental evidence base in support of DFO fisheries and resource management policies. It helps to inform and guide decision-making.

Today, our DFO team consists of Mr. David Whorley, director of resource operations, and two of DFO's leading stock assessment experts, Dr. Darrell Mullowney and Mr. Matthew Hardy. We will present snapshots of two major fisheries, snow crab and lobster, which cover really only a portion of the much broader suite of science assessment and monitoring work we undertake on hundreds of fish stocks across the country. The overview will cover how we do our snow crab and lobster stock assessment and monitoring, provide a glimpse of overall trends, and then highlight stock status results in key management areas, taking into account considerable differences in ecosystems, environmental factors, species interactions and linkages that make these areas unique, and the ways in which they are changing over time.

On this, I now turn to my colleagues Dr. Mullowney and Mr. Hardy for their respective presentations. After they have completed their overview, we would be happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

[Darrell Mullowney, Biologist, Shellfish Science, Newfoundland and Labrador Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans]

Thank you.

My name is Darrell Mullowney. Thanks for having me. I'll give you a broad-strokes overview of snow crab throughout Atlantic Canada, and then Mr. Hardy will follow suit with lobster.

Snow crab is a subarctic species. It's the colder species of the two that we're presenting here today. It's a bit of a fussy animal. It's typically found in temperatures ranging from about -1.5°C to about 4°C. That might correspond to depths of roughly 50 metres to 600 metres. It's a sexually dimorphic species, which means there are physically different attributes between the sexes. In this case, it means the males are the larger of the two sexes. It's a “male only” fishery where only the largest of males are retained. This is thought to be fairly safe in helping to safeguard the reproductive capacity of stock in the face of fisheries.

A central tenet of the biology of the species that's important to understand is that it undergoes a final, or terminal, molt. This need not occur just in the big animals; it can occur at small sizes as well, in particular the males who are of interest to the fishery. They terminally molt, or stop molting, at a carapace width that's somewhere between 40 millimetres and 160 millimetres.

This one genetic stock of animals spans four DFO regions. The stock extends from about central Labrador, in NAFO division 2H, all throughout Atlantic Canada down to kind of west of Halifax in southwest Nova Scotia, NAFO division 4X. Science tends to assess at broad spatial scales, but the management and quotas are allocated at much smaller scales, in crab management areas. With respect to removals of the species from Atlantic Canada, Atlantic Canada has been the biggest global supplier of snow crab for over two decades. The fishery really came on after the finfish collapses throughout the region in the early 1990s.

The southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, in NAFO division 4T, has the longest history of substantial fisheries. That's shown in the blue part; in the green part is the Grand Bank NAFO division 3NLO, which is off the southeast shores of Newfoundland. These are the two areas of primary consequence for removals. The stock removals have been something in the range of 80,000 tonnes to 100,000 tonnes for about two decades, with a pretty good bite out of that in 2018. Most of that was on the back of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Grand Bank. Looking forward to 2019, we're not expecting any major deviance from the 2018 situation in terms of removals.

We have a pretty robust monitoring and research program in all four regions. Looking at the bottom-right panel of the graph, we use what's called fishery-independent data to formulate biomass, essentially. These are sources of data that have nothing to do with the fisheries. We typically use surveys, either trawl or trap surveys. There are other sources of data, which are fishery-dependent. Those would be commercial logbooks—time and space, at-sea observer sampling, and those sorts of things. A big point we'd like to make is that much of the monitoring of snow crab in all regions is carried out in collaboration with industry. This includes fishery-dependent data, as well as such things as collaborative surveys with our industry and other stakeholders.

This graph looks at the exploitable biomass—the portion that I spoke of earlier, the big males in the population that we are able to fish on. Newfoundland and Labrador has been at its lowest level of biomass for the past four years. The terminal point on the graph is what the fishery has to look forward to in the forthcoming season. The southern Gulf of St. Lawrence is a bit of an opposite story. Their stock is fairly high in that region. The Maritimes and Quebec are the lesser two regions in terms of the importance of removals. Their stock is somewhere near its lowest observed level. So Newfoundland and Labrador is at its lowest observed level, the other two near it, and the southern gulf a little more promising at present.

I'll pass it over to Mr. Hardy to talk about lobster.

[Matthew Hardy, Manager, Fisheries and Ecosystem Sciences Division, Gulf Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans]

I'm going to keep essentially the same format as Dr. Mullowney. I'll give just a brief overview of lobster and compare and contrast what we've just heard with respect to snow crab.

Different from snow crab, lobster is a temperate species. Its preference is for warmer and shallower waters, with the exception of the Scotian Shelf. In this fishery, we exploit both males and females, usually using a set minimum carapace size. The legal carapace size is really important to ensuring that reproductive females and reproductive males are able to reach maturity and keep productivity high for this species. Unlike snow crab, lobster will continue to grow well past the fishing period. Large lobster will continue to grow and continue to produce. A large female lobster can produce many thousands of eggs, compared to a younger, smaller female lobster. It's important we conserve these.

As with snow crab, the fishing areas are not really defined by biology. What's very different from snow crab is that it's much more of an effort-controlled fishery. With the exception of LFA 41, these are all effort-controlled fisheries. Effort-controlled fishery means that we're looking at trap limits and limited access, and the season is well defined. There are trap configuration aspects that limit the size of lobster that will be retained, ensuring that a portion of lobster are left in the water to continue their reproduction.

With respect to lobster, we're seeing a very clear trend across Atlantic Canada with increasing lobster landings. In the last 30 years, we've seen an approximate doubling of the lobster landings in Atlantic Canada. Clearly, it's a highly valuable species. There is no indication that this broad trend in landings is going to change in the near future.

In terms of the colour, the brown colour is MAR or Maritimes region, and red is Gulf, which is the southern Gulf of Saint Lawrence. These are the two largest fishing areas for lobster, followed by Quebec and Newfoundland, in orange and blue respectively.

As with snow crab, we use a variety of different data sources from fishery-independent surveys and studies in some places. In terms of what goes into our assessment, there's a heavier reliance in the lobster fishery on fishery-dependent data, like logbooks, trap indices and landing reports. Because the lobster fishery is an effort-based fishery, rather than a quota-based fishery, we're looking largely at the trends of the fishery over time and how the fishery is performing in the various regions. This varies a lot between different regions, and the methodologies vary, but the idea is to get at the trend of how the population is doing in these respective areas. In each of the regions that I mentioned before, we have teams of scientists working on lobster, collecting information and providing science advice on these stocks.

I would also add that, with respect to ongoing science in terms of what we're trying to accomplish with lobster, there is an emphasis on understanding what recruitment indices are like in different areas and understanding the young lobsters that are coming into the fishery that are not caught in commercial lobster traps. We do scuba surveys and use bio-collectors. We have different types of mechanisms through which we collect that information. As with snow crab, a lot of that information is collected in collaboration with our fishing industry partners.

With respect to the trends in each of the regions, you can see a little more variability with respect to Newfoundland and Labrador, but in all regions we see a broad tendency for an increase in landings and we see that the stocks are doing well. The recruitment indices that we have also support the landing trends that we see in the commercial fishery.

I think that's it in terms of our presentation. We're open to questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Okay. We'll get to our questioning very shortly.

Before we get to the questioning, I would like to welcome Mr. Dean Allison, the member for Niagara West, who is representing the Conservative side today as an additional replacement, I guess, for lack of a better word.

Welcome to the committee, sir.

[Dean Allison, Conservative, Niagara West, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

We'll start with seven minutes on the government side for Mr. Fraser.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for being here today, everybody. I appreciate your presentations. I think this is a very important study that we're undertaking, and it's timely, given the information that we're learning from the industry about the migration of shellfish, including lobster and snow crab.

Being the member of Parliament for West Nova, I have the pleasure of representing both the LFA 34 and LFA 35 lobster fishing areas, which are extremely important to the overall fishery of our country. It's a billion-dollar-a-year industry and more, so ensuring we understand what's going on with the migration patterns of lobsters and the health of the stock is extremely important to the people I represent and to the overall economy of Atlantic Canada.

When you look at the spinoffs that happen as a result of the fishery—and the lobster fishery in particular in my area, which has done so well over the last number of years—you see how it impacts communities. The number of people employed in the industry, and how well they're doing, is directly related not only to the catch but also to the expanding world trade markets for our seafood, given its top quality.

I really want to focus on the long-term sustainability of the resource itself. When we talk about data collection and the science, I want to be assured that we're doing enough to understand what's actually going on with the migration pattern of lobsters. I know that we've seen the number of lobsters being caught in my area grow quite a bit over the last 10, 15 or 20 years. The data bears that out.

I'm wondering, Mr. Hardy, if you can explain your thoughts on those increases, and if they're related to the migration patterns northward of lobster stocks because of changing water temperatures.

[Matthew Hardy]

I interpret your question in the context of climate change or ongoing changes in population distribution.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

Yes.

[Matthew Hardy]

That's a really important question, and it's something the department takes very seriously. I'll just mention quickly that we have an extensive program on understanding climate change and the different ocean parameters that are changing over time.

With respect to our work specifically on lobster, we are monitoring the adult population, largely through the fishery, but one of the key aspects we're interested in is monitoring recruitment: those younger lobsters that are not seen in commercial traps. We have experience and we collaborate with our American counterparts, who have seen some decline in certain areas in the southern part of the range of lobster.

What we saw there, over periods of time, was that the fishing landings maintained themselves during a period when recruitment was going down in terms of young lobster. We hope to have a complete understanding of the population by monitoring both adult and recruitment indices to have a sense of early detection if we start to see populations changing and whatnot.

Broadly speaking, the outlook is still very positive for lobster in Atlantic Canada. The habitats we have are very favourable to lobster, and we may see some expansion of the range of lobster in many parts of Atlantic Canada.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

What scientific research and data collection measures have been implemented over the last few years to ensure we understand what's going on with the patterns of lobster movements?

[Matthew Hardy]

We have extensive programs in each of the four regions, using fisheries data and independent data as well. I can point to one example. I can speak to my region, the gulf region. We have scuba-diving indices where we have been following up on various sites over the past decades. There's one site in particular that we began monitoring in 2003 or 2004, I believe, in northern New Brunswick, in Caraquet.

Initially, in going through those transects, we send a diver down and they swim along the bottom, counting and measuring lobster covering a 100-metre transect. The first time we did that, in 2003, I believe, we saw about three lobsters. In 2018, we saw 276 lobsters over that same surface area at that same site. That's an example of the type of research that provides a sense of what's going on in terms of recruitment, in addition to the commercial aspects of the fishery.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

Obviously, working with industry is important. There are rules around collecting data from logbooks, data entry and that sort of thing.

[Matthew Hardy]

Absolutely.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

Is there anything more that's being explored with regard to working with industry to ensure that they are partners in understanding what's going on with the lobster stock?

[Matthew Hardy]

Yes.

Again, I'll give an example from my region, the gulf region, but there are other examples in different areas. We have an ongoing project with Prince Edward Island Fishermen's Association, with the Province of P.E.I. and with the Gulf Nova Scotia Bonafide Fishermen's Association, where we deploy bio-collectors. These are essentially large boxes that various species land on—lobster juveniles, rock crab juveniles, various other species—and we can measure those changes over time. That kind of project would be impossible without the collaboration of industry.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

I know that the Atlantic fisheries fund has been useful in funding organizations from industry that are working collaboratively to come up with scientific research and data collection. I know of groups in my area that have been successful in receiving some of that funding.

Do you anticipate the information they're able to gather to be helpful to the department's understanding of what's going on with the lobster stock?

[Matthew Hardy]

Yes, absolutely. Both lobster and snow crab projects that are being developed under the Atlantic fisheries fund are of scientific interest. Our staff are involved in many of these projects in terms of providing science advice, and those projects will be absolutely useful.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

I noticed the graph in your presentation, “Atlantic Canada Lobster Stock Status”; I think it's the second-to-last page. With regard to the Maritimes region, how come LFA 34 and LFA 35, which are of some interest to me in particular, are not there? Is there a different area where those are captured?

[Matthew Hardy]

I apologize. I believe that the legend was cut off when we resized these graphics. The information is represented in the graphic, but the label is missing.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

Okay. I assume the purple one is probably LFA 34, since that is the largest lobster fishing area.

[Matthew Hardy]

Yes. We can provide you with a proper graphic.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

That would be great. Thanks a lot.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Thank you, Mr. Fraser. Your time is up.

We will now go to the Conservative side.

Mr. Arnold, you have seven minutes or less, please.