Representatives of the snow crab industry generally pleased with changes

Representatives of the New Brunswick snow crab industry say they're pleased with new measures for their industry announced by the federal Fisheries and Oceans minister. Dominic LeBlanc introduced changes to the fishery for the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence in Moncton Tuesday.

They're aimed at helping protect North Atlantic right whales.

The new measures include reducing the amount of rope floating on the water and using colour coded rope specific to each fishing area. Identifying buoys must be marked with a sequential number and there is mandatory reporting of all lost gear.

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People who work in the snow crab industry say they worked closely with the federal government on the new measures.

Jean Lanteigne is the general manager of Professional Acadian Fishermen in Shippigan.

He says he's on board with the changes, but would like to see more emphasis on speed reduction.

"We want all boats on the water when there's a presence of whales to go down to 10 knots not only to the larger vessels but to all vessels we want that measure and also the number of crab pots we want that to be diminished by a large quantity on the concept that less pots in the water means less chance of having entanglement." Lanteignesaid.

Fisheries and Oceans minister Dominic LeBlanc says a number of other measures will be announced in the coming weeks and months, including the possibility of starting the season sooner.

"In terms of using Coast Guard ice breakers to possibly open certain harbours as early as possible thereby allowing the fishing industry to catch their quota and remove their gear from the water as early as possible hopefully reducing the risk of contact with the whales." LeBlanc said Tuesday.

Lanteigne says last year the season started at the end of April, and he'd like to see it begin around the middle of the month.

"Very often I would say almost every year we can start fishing but we can't because the wharf are loaded with ice so we can't actually access the fishing grounds if the coast guard would be there with the necessary equipment then we could start earlier." said Lanteigne

Martin Mallet is the Executive Director of the Maritime Fishermen's Union.

He says the industry is still adjusting to the new reality.

"The whale situation or the whale crisis if you want is a new situation for us in the Gulf." said Mallet.

Mallet says it will be interesting to see how the new measures work.

"We don't know the whalesmaybe they won't be there ins 2018 right? We don't know so we will need a few years data to have a better idea what is the whale distribution in the Gulf is it changing is it stabilizing and then as we go forward by trial and error test some of these techniques to see if they work or not." Mallet said.

Mallet says the industry is open to change, as long as they're given ample time for implimentation.

The snow crab season generally starts in April, but exactly when depends on weather conditions.