Atlantic deep sea red crab

Kyllej — 2008-03-11T09:05:00Z

MSC status

Certified as sustainable on 3rd September 2009.

Summary

Species: Atlantic deep-sea red crab (Chaceon quinquedens)
Location: Along the continental shelf of the north-eastern coast of the United States, from Cape Hatteras (North Carolina) in the south to border with Canada in the north.
Fishing methods: Trap (pot)
Vessels: 4
Number of fisheries: 1

Subscribe to RSS - add this to your reader to receive an update when new information on this fishery is added.

More about Atlantic deep-sea red crab

Deep-sea red crabs are found along the continental shelf and slope of the Western Atlantic and are generally found at depths from 200 to 1800 meters. Their distribution reaches from the Gulf of Mexico in the south up to Emerald Bay, Nova Scotia in the north. Depending on life stage, they may occur from the shallow warm waters of the continental shelf as larvae and deep cold water on the outer continental shelf as post larval crabs.

In the Northeast, adult red crabs occur along the continental shelf edge and upper slope from the Scotian Shelf and the Gulf of Maine to Cape Hatteras.

More about the fishing methods

The directed red crab fishery is entirely a trap fishery. The primary fishing zone for red crab, as reported by the fishing industry, is at a depth of 400-800 meters along the continental shelf in the Northeast region, and is limited to waters north of 35° 15.3N (Cape Hatteras, NC) and south of the Hague Line.

Fishery tonnage

2,688 tonnes

Commercial market

Product sold domestically within the United States to food service businesses.

Actual eligibility date

The actual elgibility date for crab products caught in the Atlantic Deep Sea Red Crab fishery as 3 January 2009. This date predates the release of a Public Comment Draft Report by less than six months.

Crab caught after the actual eligibility date but before the date of the certification of the fishery and sold beyond the first point of sale after landing may be eligible to use the MSC ecolabel, provided that any company having bought fish bears a valid Chain of Custody certificate.

Meet the fishers

Jessica Wenban-Smith — 2008-05-28T15:25:00Z

Meet the Atlantic red crab fishers

The Atlantic deep-sea red crab fishery was started in the early 1970s. In October 2009 it became the first U.S. East Coast fishery to earn MSC certification.

It is also the only East Coast fishery whose participants (in 2001) have ever requested a voluntary shut-down of the fishery until a Fisheries Management Plan was put in place. They were determined to protect the red crab resource from over-fishing and successfully lobbied to limit the total allowable catch of red crab. The Fisheries Management Plan that was put in place that year marked the start of a long-term strategic plan for sustainable fishing of Atlantic deep-sea red crabs.

Each of the four boats in this fishery has a permanent captain and five deckhands. A roving captain provides relief when a permanent captain takes a break. The captains and crew fish year-round, often for two months at a time followed by one-month breaks. During the fishing trips, they are generally at sea for seven to nine days at a time before returning to offload the crab.

Jon Williams - majority owner of the Hannah Boden red crab vessel (formerly its captain), CEO of the Atlantic Red Crab Co. and president of the New England Red Crab Harvesters' Association - says, “The red crab industry is very proud to have earned the distinction of becoming the first MSC-certified fishery on the east coast of the United States. The MSC ecolabel demonstrates our fishery’s long-term commitment to fishing sustainably and its proactive approach to working with fishery managers. We are very excited to have achieved this milestone as it is an assurance to the viability of red crab products in the seafood marketplace, and the ecolabel is an emblem of pride for our fishermen.”

Sustainability notes

Kyllej — 2008-03-03T12:10:00Z

This is an overview of how the Atlantic deep sea red crab fishery scored in assessment against the MSC standard. For the certifiers evaluation please download the full public certification report with detailed information on the performance of this fishery against the criteria of the MSC environmental standard for sustainable fishing.

The fishery scored as follows in assessment against the MSC standard for sustainable fishing. The highest possible score for each principle is 100 and a fishery must score at least 80 against each principle to get certified:

MSC Principle	Fishery Performance
Principle 1: Sustainability of Exploited Stock	Overall: 81, Pass
Principle 2: Maintenance of Ecosystem	Overall: 93, Pass
Principle 3: Effective Management System	Overall: 90, Pass

Sustainability strengths

Some points on which the fishery scored over 90 are outlined below.

Principle 1: the state of the fish stock

Red crab stocks are well above threshold reference points below which there are risks of impairing reproductive capacity.
A well defined and comprehensive harvest strategy has been implemented after several years of cooperative effort between fishermen, scientists and managers.

Principle 2: the impact of the fishery on the marine environment

The fishery is very selective for the target species and has virtually no detectable impact on other retained species which comprise less than 0.001% by number.
There is no risk of serious harm to any bycatch species, and levels of by-catch are extremely low. The main bycatch are undersized or female red crabs which are released with 95% survival rates.
There are no documented interactions between this fishery and any endangered, threatened or protected species with surveys reporting no by-catches of any of these vulnerable species.
As a trap fishery with floating ground lines on a mainly soft mud bottom, there is little or negligible impact of gear on the marine environment.
The fishery does not adversely or permanently affect the structure, productivity, function or diversity of the ecosystem.

Principle 3: the fishery management systems

The management system in place is very comprehensive, operating within a framework of U.S. federal laws specific to fishery management.
Multiple layers of precaution are integrated into the management policies governing this fishery, taking into account any uncertainties surrounding the biological assessment of the stock.
There is a very active research programme which aims to provide scientific information to meet the requirements of management of the fishery.

Challenges

In order to ensure its continuing sustainable operation this fishery made a commitment to improving its performance where it scored between 60-80. Some of the actions the fishery has committed to are:

Implement a strategy by 2010 which aims to gradually increase the average size of males in the population to ensure sufficient numbers of larger males are available in the population to mate with the largest females.
Implement a programme by 2010 to support the collection of fishery-dependent data sufficient for use in annual stock assessments conducted by federal or industry-contracted scientists.

Unit of certification

Kyllej — 2008-03-03T12:10:00Z

The unit of certification is the unit that is assessed by certifiers against the MSC environmental standard. It is defined as the fishery or fish stock (a biologically distinct unit) combined with the fishing method/gear and practice (the vessel/s) pursuing that stock. This is set at the beginning of the assessment.

The fishery: Unit of certification

The certified Atlantic deep sea red crab fishery is defined as:

Species	Deep sea red crab (Chaceon quinquedens)
Geographical range of fishing operations	The boundaries of the management unit for red crab are limited to the waters of the Atlantic Ocean from 35º 15.3N. lat., the approximate latitude of Cape Hatteras Light, NC, northward to the U.S.-Canada border, extending eastward from the shore to the outer boundary of the exclusive economic zone and northward to the U.S.-Canada border.
Method of capture	Trap (pot)
Stock	Red crab stock
Management	New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC), in partnership with the National Marine Fisheries Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the US Department of Commerce.
Client group	New England Red Crab Harvesters Association