4. Groundfish Landings
4.1. Species
The principle groundfish species landed in
St. Georges Bay are white hake, American plaice, winter flounder,
and cod (Table 1). These four species are ranked 3, 5, 7, and 8 on
the list of all species landed in the study area between 1985 -97.
This report will focus on fisheries for these four species. Other
groundfish species reported in St. Georges Bay are dogfish, witch
flounder, haddock, yellowtail flounder, halibut and Greenland halibut,
however their landings have been very small and these will not be
considered further.
Table 1: Landings by species of commercial
marine species in St. Georges Bay, 1985 - 1997.
4.2. Gear
Groundfish are caught with several fishing
gears (Table 2). The main gears are stern and side otter trawl, longline,
gillnet, and seine. All four have a continuous history of fishing
in the area, and their landings will be considered further in this
report. Other minor gears include handline, jiggers, pair seine, traps
and pots.
Table 2: Fishing gears used to catch groundfish
in St. Georges Bay. The amount of use of each gear is indicated by
the number of purchase slips.
The species composition of the landings varies
among the different gears (Fig. 2). Otter trawls were used to catch
winter flounder, white hake, and plaice. Longlines were used almost
exclusively for white hake. Gillnets were used for white hake, cod,
and for a brief period (1991) for winter flounder. Seines were used
for plaice, cod, and white hake.
Figure 2: Groundfish landings in St. Georges
Bay by four main gear categories, 1985 - 1997.
4.3. Ports
There are some 21 recognised fish offloading
sites in the St. Georges Bay study area (Figure
1). Contiguous sites were regrouped into 9 "ports" to facilitate
further analysis. These are listed in Table 3. The groupings were
as follows. Lismore, Arisaig and Cribbons Point were treated as individual
ports. BallantyneÕs Cove and Livingston Cove were combined. Bayfield,
Southside Harbour and Pomquet were combined. Havre Boucher, Tracadie,
and Aulds Cove were combined. BaxterÕs Cove was grouped with Maryville
and McKayÕs Point. MurphyÕs Pond included Little Judique Harbour and
Port Hood. Finally, Mabou Harbour and Mabou Mines were combined.
The usage of these different fishing gears
varies geographically (Table 3). Gillnets were used mainly from ports
at the mouth of St. Georges Bay including Murphy's Pond, Mabou, Ballantyne's
Cove, Arisaig, and Lismore. Longlines were used at Murphy's Pond,
Havre Boucher, Ballantyne's Cove, and Bayfield. Otter trawls were
used from the western and central ports (Lismore, Arisaig, Ballantyne's
Cove, Bayfield, and Havre Boucher). Seines were used almost exclusively
at Murphy's Pond with a moderate number of purchase slips coming from
Ballantyne's Cove. It would be instructive to understand what influences
the choice of fishing gear in different ports. Is it the type of fishing
grounds available near the port, the species sought, or the development
of local expertise with the different gears?
Table 3: Fishing gear usage (number of purchase
clips) by fishing ports in the St. Georges Bay area, 1985-1997. The
ports were grouped into the nine locations.
|
|
Gillnet
|
Longline
|
Otter Trawl
|
Seine
|
|
LISMORE*
|
199
|
19
|
2672
|
7
|
|
ARISAIG*
|
223
|
3
|
1766
|
1
|
|
BALLANTYNE'S COVE*
|
481
|
1232
|
1742
|
464
|
|
CRIBBONS POINT*
|
72
|
53
|
31
|
.
|
|
BAYFIELD*
|
125
|
769
|
1513
|
30
|
|
HAVRE BOUCHER*
|
59
|
1608
|
866
|
.
|
|
BAXTER'S COVE*
|
57
|
42
|
81
|
.
|
|
MABOU HARBOUR*
|
657
|
46
|
.
|
55
|
|
MURPHY'S POND*
|
1941
|
2095
|
42
|
3037
|
4.4. Effort
The total number of individual vessels participating
in the St. Georges Bay groundfish fisheries varied between 88 and
134 annually between 1985 and 1994. The number of vessels fell to
48 in 1995 and to 33 and 26 in 1995 and 1996 respectively. The main
reason for this decrease was probably the closure of the white hake
fishery in January 1995.
Many of these vessels were involved in fisheries
for species other than groundfish, e.g. lobster and herring. It was
also possible to change fishing gear in mid-groundfish season. As
a result, one vessel could use anywhere from one to all four main
groundfish gears in a single year. This flexibility was reduced in
1993 when vessel operators were required to choose between fixed or
mobile gears for the groundfish season.
Closure of the white hake fishery had the greatest
impact on the use of longlines and gillnets (Fig. 3). The number of
vessels using otter trawl declined gradually over the 1985 -1997 time
period, but there remained over 20 otter trawl vessels in 1997. The
number of vessels using seines remained relatively stable throughout
the time period, between 10 -20 per year. There were between 22 -45
vessels using gillnets between 1985 - 1994, but this fell to 2 -4
in the last 3 years. The number vessels using longlines varied between
25-54 during 1985-91, the increased to over 70 in 1992 -1994. However,
with the closure of the white hake fishery, this fell to 2 or 3 in
the last 3 years. Of these vessels, 2 were participants in the DFO
sentinel survey program.
Figure 3: Numbers of vessels using the four
main gear type in St. Georges Bay groundfish fisheries, 1985 - 1997.
Fishing gear use by individual vessels became
more specialized in the 1990s. This is indicated by the decline in
the index of multiple gear use (Fig. 4). This index is ratio between
the sum of the vessel-gear combinations divided by the number of individual
vessels. The ratio is restricted to the range of 1-4. An annual value
of 1 would result from each vessel using only 1 gear. The maximum
value would result from each vessel using all 4 gears. The highest
ratio occurred in 1985 (1.55). It declined to between 1.2 -1.3 in
1986 -1989, increased for 1 year to 1.35 in 1990, then declined to
a minimum value of 1.1 in 1995. Relatively speaking, there is very
little multiple gear use in the current groundfish fisheries in St.
Georges Bay.
Figure 4: Index of multiple gear use in St.
Georges Bay groundfish fisheries, 1985 -1997. The index is the ratio
of the sum of the number of vessel/gear combinations in a year divided
by the number of individual vessels fishing in the year.
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