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 "This fishery improvement project supports Sustainable Fisheries Partnership’s Target 75 initiative, as it aims to improve the sustainability of snow crab fisheries by reducing the impact of the fishing gear on other marine wildlife. 

SFP partners include major retailers and food service providers that have commitments to advancing the sustainability of seafood by working with suppliers who are proactively seeking solutions to environmental challenges in fisheries. SFP works with these supply chains to help facilitate and catalyze industry-led fishery improvement projects (FIPs) when those challenges are identified. 

There are already many efforts being undertaken by fishers, fishery managers, and other stakeholders in Atlantic Canada to test different fishing gear, area closures, earlier openings and other measures to reduce interactions with critically endangered north Atlantic right whales. Over the past year, SFP has worked with proactive industry stakeholders in the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence region to adapt their specific pilot projects and efforts into a publicly recognized FIP. 

For the snow crab fishery in the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence to be sustainable in the long term, practical solutions must be developed that work for both the fishers and the whales. Rope-less gear, combined with other measures, shows promise as a solution but must be piloted and adapted for the vessels, the conditions, and to develop management strategies to support its use. SFP applauds this FIP as an example of fishers working hard to make a real difference, embracing new approaches, and actively participating in the development of solutions. This FIP will serve as a model for other pot and trap fisheries that overlap with whale habitat. "