Question Period Note: Central Coast Crab Fisheries And Food, Social, Ceremonial Needs

• My Department and the four BC Central Coast First Nations have been working together through the Central Coast Collaborative Crab Management Process to ensure sufficient food, social and ceremonial fishing access.
• The Department is currently reviewing a recommendation coming out of the collaborative management process to close certain fishing areas to commercial and recreational activities and a final decision will be forthcoming.
• We value the collaborative work with the Central Coast First Nations and remain committed to also working with the commercial and recreational sectors to ensure the long-term sustainability of the fishery.

If pressed on concerns by the commercial and recreational sectors
• Conservation is DFO’s first priority in management of the all fisheries, followed by providing harvest opportunities to fulfill First Nations food, social and ceremonial requirements. After these priorities have been met and if abundance permits, DFO seeks to balance opportunities for recreational and commercial harvest.
• Both the recreational and commercial sectors were consulted on the specific site closures between December 2019 - September 2020. Their input on the proposed management changes to improve FSC access has been considered and evaluated.
• Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Central Coast First Nations will continue to engage with commercial and recreational stakeholders on the development of monitoring plans for these new closures, and the criteria for evaluating the effectiveness at meeting the identified objective of improving FSC access.

• The Central Coast Collaborative Crab Management Process (CCCMP) is a pilot that is part of a larger Fisheries Resources and Reconciliation Agreement (FRRA) process underway with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) by Coastal First Nations that will offer economic and governance opportunities to First Nation communities.
• The CCCMP is governed by a letter of intent and a process and procedure agreement. The primary goals are (1) to maintain healthy crab populations and (2) ensure sufficient Food, Social and Ceremonial (FSC) access.
• The collaborative First Nations/DFO steering committee is recommending a list of closures based on a joint review of information on local crab biology and First Nations’ FSC needs.
• Since its inception in 2017, the process has focused on developing a joint understanding of crab on the Central Coast. The Dungeness crab fishery in BC is primarily managed by reducing fishing impacts on reproductive individuals. No crab fishing sector can legally keep crab smaller than 165 mm point-to-point carapace width (“legal male crab”).
• Recreational and commercial fishers cannot keep female crab, and Central Coast First Nations leadership discourage their members from retaining female crab.
• First Nation FSC fishers on the Central Coast have observed declines in their catch rates of legal male crabs since the 1990s (Ban et al. 2017). Their observations also indicate that declines accelerated in the early 2000s as commercial fishing effort in the Central Coast increased, and as recreational fishers began to navigate through the smaller bays and inlets.
• The following management actions will be implemented: 11 locations for commercial year-round crab fishing closures, 15 locations for recreational year-round crab fishing closures and 2 summer recreational closures.

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