Snow Crab

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Newfoundland and Labrador

The first Snow Crab landings in Newfoundland occurred in the late 1960s as bycatch in the groundfish gillnet fisheries in Trinity Bay. During the 1970s, directed Snow Crab fisheries developed along the northeast coast, primarily in NAFO Division 3L, eventually spreading into 3K. Crab fishing occurred sporadically in NAFO sub-division 3Ps in the 1970s, but did not occur on a regular basis until the mid-1980s.

The fishery in Labrador (NAFO Division 2J) began in the mid-1980s. Small-scale exploratory fisheries started in 4R in the late 1980s, initially in Bay St. George and Bay of Islands, with the first significant landings occurring in the early 1990s.

Individuals who harvested Snow Crab in Newfoundland and Labrador prior to the expansion of the fishery in the 1980s were designated as full-time license holders in Division 2J, 3K and 3L. Initially, harvesters with full-time licenses operated in areas close to shore, but have since moved to harvest crab beyond 50 miles from land.

Supplementary fisheries were implemented in 2J, 3K, and 3Ps in 1985 and in 3L in 1987. These fisheries were developed to provide harvesters access to Snow Crab to supplement incomes negatively affected by declining groundfish resources.

Temporary seasonal Snow Crab permits were first issued to operators of vessels less than 35’ in length in 1995 in response to increasing Snow Crab resources and declining groundfish resources, on which enterprises had traditionally depended. In 2003, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans announced the conversion of temporary seasonal Snow Crab permits to permanent inshore Snow Crab licenses.

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