Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence Snow Crab Research Trawl Survey Data

PURPOSE:

Trawl survey data used primarily for assessing the status of snow crab stocks in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence.

DESCRIPTION:

Tow, catch, and biological information for snow crab and other species caught during the annual snow crab research vessel trawl survey in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Currently, the survey uses a stratified random design that divides the area into 355 square grids, each measuring 12.7 km by 12.7 km. The survey area spans the majority of snow crab habitat in the southern Gulf, at depths ranging from 20 to 200 fathoms. Sampling stations are trawled during civil twilight hours using a Bigouden Nephrops bottom trawl net. The vessel operates at a target speed of 2 knots for a duration of 5 minutes, maintaining a warp-to-depth ratio of 3:1, with a maximum warp length of 575 fathoms.

PARAMETERS COLLECTED:

Snow crab: sex, carapace width, height of male crab claw, shell condition, gonad colour, egg colour, eggs remaining, and missing legs.

Other species: counts, and weights

Other: GPS coordinates; swept area; depth; temperature; CTD profile;

NOTES ON QUALITY CONTROL:

Data are checked for irregularities and errors.

SAMPLING METHODS:

Survey catches are sorted by species or taxonomic groups and measured directly on board. All snow crab are measured, while select fish species are measured only for a subset of survey stations.

USE LIMITATION:

To ensure scientific integrity and appropriate use of the data, we would encourage you to contact the data custodian.

Datasets available for download

• Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence Snow Crab Trawl...CSV
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• Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence Snow Crab Trawl...CSV
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• Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence Snow Crab Trawl...CSV
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• Data Dictionary Crab Biological DataCSV
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• Data Dictionary Other Species Biological DataCSV
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• Data Dictionary Sampling EventsCSV
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• Supplementary citation listPDF
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• Chionoecetes opilio
• Crustaceans
• Fisheries
• Gulf of St. Lawrence
• Nature and Environment
• Population Dynamics
• Science and Technology
• Trawl

Additional Info

• Maturity Level 1 (54%)
• Maturity Level 2 (38%)
• Maturity Level 3 (0%)
• Maturity Level 4 (0%)
• Maturity Level 5 (0%)
• Maturity Level 6 (0%)

Field	Value
Last Updated	October 20, 2025, 02:46 (UTC)
Created	October 20, 2025, 02:46 (UTC)
Domain / Topic Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.	Biota
Title Title for the Dataset.	Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence Snow Crab Research Trawl Survey Data
Description A description of the dataset.	PURPOSE: Trawl survey data used primarily for assessing the status of snow crab stocks in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence. DESCRIPTION: Tow, catch, and biological information for snow crab and other species caught during the annual snow crab research vessel trawl survey in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence. Currently, the survey uses a stratified random design that divides the area into 355 square grids, each measuring 12.7 km by 12.7 km. The survey area spans the majority of snow crab habitat in the southern Gulf, at depths ranging from 20 to 200 fathoms. Sampling stations are trawled during civil twilight hours using a Bigouden Nephrops bottom trawl net. The vessel operates at a target speed of 2 knots for a duration of 5 minutes, maintaining a warp-to-depth ratio of 3:1, with a maximum warp length of 575 fathoms. PARAMETERS COLLECTED: Snow crab: sex, carapace width, height of male crab claw, shell condition, gonad colour, egg colour, eggs remaining, and missing legs. Other species: counts, and weights Other: GPS coordinates; swept area; depth; temperature; CTD profile; NOTES ON QUALITY CONTROL: Data are checked for irregularities and errors. SAMPLING METHODS: Survey catches are sorted by species or taxonomic groups and measured directly on board. All snow crab are measured, while select fish species are measured only for a subset of survey stations. USE LIMITATION: To ensure scientific integrity and appropriate use of the data, we would encourage you to contact the data custodian.
Tags / Keywords Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.	Chionoecetes opilio Crustaceans Fisheries Gulf of St. Lawrence Nature and Environment Population Dynamics Science and Technology Trawl
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc) File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size Dataset size in megabytes.
Metadata Identifier Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date Published date of the dataset.	2020-04-06
Time Period Data Span (start date) Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date) End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.

Field	Value
Access category Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
License License used to access the dataset.	Open Government Licence - Canada
Limits on use Limits on use of data.
Location Location of the dataset.	https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/d73d12ed-cf4a-9f61-d249-58e8eb6b9711
Data Service Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner Owner of the dataset.	Fisheries and Oceans Canada | Pêches et Océans Canada
Contact Point Who to contact regarding access?	Government of Canada; Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 506-874-3321, [email protected]
Contact Point Email The email to contact regarding access?
Publisher Publisher of the dataset.
Publisher Email Email of the publisher.	[email protected]
Author Author of the dataset.
Author Email Email of the author.
Accessed At Date the data and metadata was accessed.

Field	Value
Identifier Unique identifier for the dataset.
Language Language(s) of the dataset
Link to dataset description A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
Persistent Identifier Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
Globally Unique Identifier Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
Contains data about individuals Does the data hold data about individuals?
Contains data about identifiable individuals Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
Contains Indigenous Data Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
Portal Type Platform type of the source portal.

Field	Value
Version Version of the datatset	None
Source Source of the dataset.	None
Version notes Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text Provenance Text of the data.
Provenance URL Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions) Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.

Field	Value
Indigenous Community Permission Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about Indigenous communities from which data is derived.

Field	Value
Number of data rows If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
Number of data columns If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
Number of data cells If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
Number of data relations If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
Metric for data quality A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.

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