Fighting green crab in Fortune Bay
Fishermen involved in project aimed at mitigating invasive species
Green crab may have a toehold in Fortune Bay, but fishermen in the area hope they can stop the invasive sea-bottom dwellers in their tracks.
After reports of the species popped up in the spring of 2015, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) undertook some baseline work to determine how extensive the green crabs were in the bay.
Fishermen were tapped to help out by catching the crabs and collecting some data, and have been involved in other efforts since then to prevent their spread.
A project implemented by the Fisheries, Science Stewardship and Sustainability Board, and presently underway, is stepping up the attempt to keep the species under control, again with the aid of fishermen.
Dawn Street, a projects co-ordinator with the Fish, Food and
Allied Workers (FFAW-Unifor), who is handling the issue for the union, said a call was sent out to fishermen interested in lending their assistance.
A cross-section of fishermen representing all areas of the bay were selected, each one given between 15 and 20 traps that they will use to catch green crab over the course of four weeks.
“So far we’re getting some really good feedback. Some areas it seems like they’re not
finding them there anymore,” Street said.
“I spoke with one of the harvesters in Boxey and he said he was fishing them during the lobster season, with the voluntary work
and continued now with this larger-scale mitigation, and now he’s not seeing anything there.”
It’s been nearly a decade since green crab appeared in adjacent Placentia Bay.
By the time everyone realized the species was present there and figured out the severity of the problems they could cause, it was too late for a quick fix, Street said.
She said the effort in Fortune Bay comes from not wanting to see the situation get out of hand the way it is in Placentia Bay.
“If you look at the environment and habitat in Placentia Bay right now, it’s completely decimated,” Street said.
Placentia Bay hasn’t been forgotten, she said, and mitigation efforts continue there as well.
Green crabs are known for their aggressiveness. They also compete with lobsters for food. It’s a huge problem, Street said, explaining the FFAW partnered on some projects with grad students at the Marine Institute.
One in particular that studied the two species in a tank together was revealing, she said.
“It was quite obvious that the more green crab were around the food source, the less likely lobsters were to approach it. Except if you had 25 or more green crabs. Then they kind of went into a feeding frenzy and lobsters joined in,” Street said.
“It didn’t seem to matter the size of the lobster, either. If it was an undersize lobster or if it was a juvenile, they were all intimidated by them.”
Fortune Bay is one of the most lucrative lobster areas in the province.
Fishermen are rightly concerned, Street said, adding the crabs have been found around the bay.
“We had some reports from harvesters at the early part of the season that they were pulling up lobster pots with green crab in them and dead lobsters, and immediately that’s a red flag,” she said.
Street said fishermen are calling her every day to keep her posted about the mitigation project.
“The phone calls I’m taking are from harvesters saying we need to keep this up,” she said.