P.E.I. snow crab fishermen hope trap reduction not drastic

Snow crab fishermen on P.E.I. are not opposed to new measures announced Wednesday to protect North Atlantic right whales, but they hope the reduction in the number of traps they can set is not too large.

In the past, the 27 crab fishermen on the Island were allowed to set 75 traps each. They are expected to find out their new, reduced limit in the next few days, said Carter Hutt, president of P.E.I. Snow Crab Fishermen Inc.

"Ten per cent we could probably live with, but we hope it's not a bigger reduction than that," he said.

Earlier start date

An earlier start and finish date for the crab fishery was also announced. The fishery usually begins in mid-April, but this year it will begin "as soon as it is safe to do so," said Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc.

All traps will have to be out of the water by June, about two weeks earlier than usual.

Hutt said crab fishermen are fine with the new schedule. He said they knew changes were coming and essentially approved them already through industry meetings.

There are onlyabout 450 North Atlantic right whales leftin the world, and of those, only about 100 are reproducing females.

At least 18North Atlantic right whales have been found dead since last year 12 in Canadian waters and six in U.S waters.Scientists believe human activity, including shipping and fishing, was the primary cause.

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