North Coast - Shellfish

The shellfish management team is responsible for managing 25 different invertebrate species on the North Coast. Shellfish fisheries include clams, shrimp, prawns, geoducks, sea cucumbers, crabs, krill, octopus, scallops, squid and sea urchins.

Pacific Region - Shellfish and Invertebrates Page

North Coast Shellfish Contacts:

Unique to the North:

North Coast Clams
Intertidal clam fisheries are limited by programs for monitoring marine biotoxins (PSP), sanitary growing water surveys requirements of which are defined under the Canadian Sanitary Shellfish Program (CSSP) which has been put in place to ensure public heath and safety. By 1963 shifting market dynamics resulted in a decline in the North Coast clam fisheries and a movement of harvest interests to the south. With this decline, biotoxin monitoring and water quality assessment programs were discontinued in the North and Central Coasts, which resulted in a closure of the fishery in all areas which has been in place to the present date. The rationale for the closure is to ensure public health and safety in the absence of monitoring programs, as chronic high levels of PSP occur in clams in many North Coast locations.

The exceptions to the closure are areas along the North coast of Graham Island, where a fishery for razor clams occurs, and select areas where biotoxin monitoring and water quality assessments have been re-established, such as the areas where the Heiltsuk clam fishery occurs.

In 1993, an agreement was reached with the Heiltsuk Tribal Council (HTC) establishing a clam fishery under a joint management plan. The clam agreement was a sub-agreement to the Heiltsuk’s main Fisheries Agreement under the Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy. Unlike the clam fishery in South Coast areas, which is managed by time and area closures and minimum size limits, the management approach for the Heiltsuk clam fishery is to set an annual total allowable catch (TAC) and a minimum size limit. Landings from the Heiltsuk clam fishery have been reported for each year since its 1993 inception.

Beaches near Massett, Haida Gwaii have significant populations of razor clams that have supported a commercial fishery since 1922 and an important non-commercial fishery. The Haida Gwaii razor clam fishery is co-managed by the Council of Haida Nation (CHN) and Fisheries and Oceans Canada. The details of the management agreement arrangement are described in the Razor Clam Subagreement, an agreement first negotiated through DFO’s Aboriginal Fishery Strategy in 1994. The Haida Fishery is managed through a Communal Licence and the CHN issues designations to Haida participants. Under the Communal Licence, CHN is responsible for collecting and compiling fish slip data and for collection of samples for marine toxin monitoring.


North Coast Crab
The crab by trap fishery in the North Coast is divided into two management areas: the Mainland waters of Area "B" and Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte waters known as Area "A". The Area A crab fishery has been a pioneer in the use of electronic monitoring. Implemented at the request of industry, the Area A Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) was originally designed to address theft and vandalism in Area A, however it has proven useful in monitoring fishing activity. The VMS consists of several components including a digital video camera, a GPS, a hydraulic pressure sensor, radio frequency identification tags (RFID tags), an RFID tag scanner, and electronic harvest log software. The data collected are all downloaded into an on-board computer that only the hired service provider may access. The VMS is excellent for determining trap limits, soak times, and date, time and location of fishing. Additional useful, although time consuming, applications of the current VMS include determining species caught and retained, determining retained to discard ratios (although not the reason for the discard), determining buoy markings, and observing fishing practices (i.e. sorting of catch).


North Coast Shrimp Trawl
Pink shrimp populations are low throughout the BC coast, a possible result of unusually warm ocean temperatures in the northwest Pacific Ocean. While shrimp populations are down in the Prince Rupert District (PRD) similar to most of the BC coast, (pink shrimp peaked at 2,000 tonnes (t) in 1999 and  have remained around 500 t since 2000) the sidestripe shrimp population has remained fairly strong at around 500 t. With high catch ceilings and low effort the area has remained open for most of the year.

PRD is the most important area in the North Coast for shrimp trawl with average landings of sidestripes approximately 50 t and pink shrimp approximately 200 t. Since 2001, the shrimp trawl fishers have shifted from targeting pink shrimp for the cocktail shrimp market to targeting sidestripes for finger packed boxes for the export market and producing tails frozen at sea. The higher value of sidestripes ($3.59 per pound) as opposed to pink shrimp ($0.85 per pound) makes this a significant component of the shrimp fishery, and an important opportunity for fishers that are diversified into a number of small fishing opportunities.

Shrimp Management Area Queen Charlotte Sound was closed in 2000, due to concerns for eulachon stocks in central coast rivers. Considerations to re-open Queen Charlotte Sound are dependent on the criteria established by Fisheries and Oceans Canada in discussion with the shrimp trawl industry and First Nations. These criteria include seeing returns of eulachons to central coast rivers, the index of offshore eulachon abundance, identifying an   available shrimp quota and adopting a precautionary approach to eulachon by-catch.


North Coast Humpback Shrimp
The recent history of the management of the commercial prawn fishery is one of incremental steps to improve conservation of the resource and sustainability of the associated commercial, recreational and First Nations' fisheries.

A directed commercial fishery for humpback shrimp (Pandalus hypsinotus) occurs in Subarea 1-6 (Masset Inlet) as well as in Subareas 4-10 and 4-11 (Prince Rupert Harbour). Prawns may not be retained or possessed in this fishery. Vessels must offload all prawns prior to fishing  humpback shrimp in these areas. Trap limits, tag requirements, ground line limits, minimum mesh size and hail requirements are in effect. Fishers participating in the Prince Rupert Harbour humpback trap fishery are required to make arrangements for the collection of biological information by trained observers. Each participating fisher is required to arrange for one day of observer sampling.

 

North Coast Abalone
All fisheries (recreational, commercial and First Nations) for northern abalone were closed in 1990. Abalone was listed as threatened in 1999, and as of June 2004, it also received protection under SARA. Illegal harvest is an ongoing concern, continuing to threaten any recovery of abalone. The most recent estimates from the index sites in the central coast (2001) and Queen Charlotte Islands (2002) indicate that the abalone population continues to decline.



North Coast Sea Cucumbers
There are 34 commercial licences assigned to the North Coast area. Under the commercial IQ program, two percent of the coast-wide TAC for sea cucumber is reserved, for planning purposes, for First Nations fisheries for food, social and ceremonial purposes.
 
Under the current management regime, the fishery generally lasts three weeks and occurs during October when product quality is higher and weather conditions are still conducive to fishing. In order to accommodate travel of North Coast fishers, the North Coast fishery begins slightly earlier than the in other areas of the coast. For proper management of the sea cucumber fishery in the North Coast Licence Area (Prince Rupert area), Quota Management Areas are opened in sequence and subsequent areas are only be opened once TAC in the previous area is completed.

 

North Coast Horse Clams
The North Coast horse clam fishery opens concurrently with the geoduck fishery. As is the case on the rest of the coast of British Columbia, harvest in eelgrass beds is not permitted. The Department will monitor the fishery through the On-Grounds Monitor (OGM), and may impose in-season closures if harvests occur in eelgrass beds or if harvest levels exceed acceptable levels.

Open times in the fishery are scheduled to prevent conflict with herring fisheries and herring spawning activity in the North Coast. Fishers will be notified of closures by the OGM.



North Coast Red Urchins
A Joint Project Agreement between the Department and PUHA to provide for in-season catch validation is consistent with the Department's approach to co-management in the Region. This agreement provides for catch validation at designated landing ports, in-season collection and compilation of harvest log data, collection of biological samples, a charter patrolman (On-Grounds Monitor, OGM) to attend the remote North Coast fishery for a majority of the fishing season, and a year-end summary report of the fishery.

The OGM duties include: providing a communication link between the North Coast fishery manager, the service bureau and the red sea urchin fishing fleet, monitoring fishing effort, checking dive harvest information, observing product transfer to packers, and providing summaries of fishing activity and fishing ground observations, i.e. location, bed dimensions, product quality and harvester comments.