Networking for increasing sustainability in snow crab fisheries in the Arctic
Snow crab is commercially exploited species over cold-water areas in the Arctic hemisphere. The recently initiated project “Networking for increasing sustainability in snow crab fisheries in the Arctic” lead by UIT The Arctic University of Norway, aim to address sustainability challenges in snow crab fisheries. The aim of this project links with objectives of SFI Dsolve by specifically focusing on challenges caused by lost fishing gear and plastic materials used in snow crab pots.
Several challenges are common in this type of pot fisheries. These include, among others, capture of undersized crabs during the fishery and negative effects caused by lost pots. Lost pots can contribute to prolonged continuous capture of snow crab (“ghost fishing”) creating unintended mortality and increase marine plastic pollution. This is due to the plastic material that is used in the pot netting panels which has a very slow degradation time. High numbers of retrieved pots indicates that ghost fishing is already a severe problem in different snow crab fisheries in the Arctic which questions sustainability of these fisheries.
The purpose of this project is to initiate networking and knowledge sharing between research institutes involved in research in snow crab fisheries. The project will contribute to common research on increasing sustainability in resource exploitation that aim at minimizing unintended snow crab mortality and reducing ghost fishing and Arctic marine plastic pollution by lost snow crab pots. This will be addressed by collaboration of four research institutions which have separately conducted research regarding sustainability of fisheries in the Arctic, including the snow crab fishery - UiT The Arctic University of Norway (UiT) as the lead institution, Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, DTU Aqua Technical University of Denmark, and Greenland Institute of Natural Resources.
The purpose of this project is to initiate networking and knowledge sharing between research institutes involved in research in snow crab fisheries.
The project is funded by UArctic Project Grants and will take place in 2024-2025 with meetings and workshops between the involved institutes.
Phd student Kristine Cerbule leads the project on behalf of The Arctic University of Norway. Kristine has been working on her PhD at the university since 2021. Within Dsolve, her work is related to Research Area 3 – Gear development, tests, and demonstrations at sea. Therefore, her research interests focus on testing the performance of fishing gears made using new biodegradable plastic materials, and assessment of challenges caused by lost, abandoned, or otherwise discarded fishing gear, such as ghost fishing - specifically the snow crab pot fishery in Norway. Kristine holds a BSc degree from the University of Latvia and a MSc degree in International Fisheries Management from UiT.
