The FFAW says it is pleased with the DFO’s latest snow crab assessment, but have concerns with what they say are potential gaps in the science.

On Tuesday, DFO announced that most stocks in the province are seeing growth, with the exception of 2HJ in Labrador, which is in the cautious zone.

The department says last year there were reduced trawl surveys in 2HJ3K, and no trawl survey at all in 3LNO. instead, they say trap survey trends were used to inform overall stock trends.

That isn’t sitting well with the FFAW. They have concerns with what they say are “incomplete surveys” and the impact they could have on the integrity of DFO science.

DFO Biologist Julia Pantin explained that the amount of surveys were reduced due to mechanical issues with one of their vessels, meaning they only had one to work with.

She says they looked at what impacts that could potentially have on their science by applying 2021 coverage levels and applying them to their historical data.

What they found, she says, is that the reduced sampling resulted in an overestimation of the stocks.

The FFAW says the expanded Collaborative Post Season pot survey, which they lead, helped to identify improvements in 3LNO that otherwise would have been missed by the DFO.

They call the survey a “massive undertaking” with 80 vessels completing 1,200 stations in a year.

Through that process, they were able to identify improvements in the fishable biomass.