Fisheries and Oceans Canada | Pacific Region | North Coast

Pacific Region North Coast

North Coast - Shellfish

Photo: A squat lobster The North Coast shellfish management team is responsible for managing 25 different invertebrate species in Statistical Areas 1 to 10. Shellfish fisheries include crabs, shrimp, prawns, geoduck and horse clams, intertidal clams, sea cucumbers, and sea urchins.

Pacific Region - Shellfish and Invertebrates Page

North Coast Shellfish Contacts:

Bryan Rusch 250-627-3477 All invertebrate species in North Coast Area; crab; shrimp and prawn by trap

Karen Kimura-Miller 250-627-3420 Area 7 clams; shrimp trawl; shrimp and prawn by trap

Sandra Davies 250-627-3007 Geoduck & horse clams, razor clams; clams, opal squid

Pauline Ridings 250-627-3014 Sea cucumbers, red sea urchins, abalone, sea otters

Unique to the North:

North Coast Intertidal Clams
Photo: Danger sign - Shellfish area closed 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
Prince Rupert District (PRD) is the most important area in the North Coast for shrimp trawl. The three species of shrimp that are targeted in the PRD are sidestripe shrimp, spiny pink shrimp and smooth pink shrimp. In recent years fishing effort has been low, resulting in the catch ceiling for the PRD to not be reached and the area remaining open for most of the year.

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
A directed commercial fishery for humpback shrimp (Pandalus hypsinotus) occurs 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) have been closed for northern abalone since 1990. Abalone was listed as threatened in 1999, and in June 2003 it also received protection under the Species At Risk Act (SARA). In 2009, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) reviewed the status of northern abalone and recommended its status be changed from “threatened” to “endangered”. Illegal harvest is thought to be the main reason for the continued decline of the northern abalone population in BC.

North Coast Sea Cucumbers
The majority of the sea cucumber Total Allowable Catch (approximately 80%) is in the North Coast area. The fishery is scheduled for 8 weeks starting in 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.

The fishery is currently in an expansion phase after being restricted to 25% of the BC coast from 1998 to 2007. This was part of an Adaptive Management Plan (AMP) which was put in place to gather valuable time-series fisheries data. Once the ten years of data was collected and analysed the Department began reopening sections of the coast that were closed during the AMP. Since 2008, nine new QMAs have been created in the North Coast Area and the plan is to continue to reopen portions of the coast in order to eventually facilitate a rotational style fishery.

North Coast Geoduck and Horse Clams
The majority of the geoduck Total Allowable Catch (approximately 70%) is in the North Coast. The North Coast fishery is monitored by an On-Grounds Monitor (OGM) who is responsible for keeping track of quotas, open times and fleet movement. In the North Coast area, harvesters offload to packer vessels which then bring product into either Prince Rupert or Port Hardy for validation. This differs from the south coast area where harvesters are much closer to offloading ports and do not use packer vessels.

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.

North Coast Red Urchins
The majority of the red sea urchin Total Allowable Catch (approximately 80%) is in the North Coast area. The fishery occurs year round but the majority of landings are recorded in the fall/winter months when product quality and market demand are highest.

In the North Coast area, harvesters offload to packer vessels which then bring product into either Prince Rupert or Port Hardy for validation. This differs from the south coast area where harvesters are much closer to offloading ports and do not use packer vessels.

In recent years the red sea urchin fishery has been in decline due to an Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated (IUU) fishery in Russia. Sea urchins from the IUU fishery are cheaper than BC product and have flooded the Japanese market, shutting out the higher priced product from BC.

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Updated: 2005-12-15