Experimental Netting of Spring Herring Using Commercial Style Nets

The purpose of this project is to enhance scientific knowledge of local spring herring populations and their relation to the global southern Gulf of St. Lawrence herring stock. To achieve this goal, one or more contractors will be engaged to provide DFO with an opportunity to survey spring herring fishing grounds. The information gathered throughout this project will be used to assess local indices of recruitment, size-at-maturity, mesh selectivity and relative fishing mortalities. The project will also produce indices of fish catch-at-age and fish weight-at-age that are used in the spring herring stock assessment. Environmental information on spawning grounds will also be collected through temperature loggers.For each of the five (5) regions of interest, Fisheries and Oceans Canada requires two (2) licensed herring fishing vessels and their captains to provide the gillnet fishing vessel and their services together with the crew to set and fish five (5) stand-alone commercial style experimental gillnets each to determine the size composition of the herring schools and to obtain indices of age-classes entering the population. Regions are specified below:Region 1: Two (2) vessels & two (2) Captains in region 1 (16B), Chaleur Bay – North side will each be responsible for fishing five (5) commercial style experimental gillnets on the same night, once per week for a total of four (4) weeks.Region 2: Two (2) vessels & two (2) Captains in region 2 (16B), Chaleur – South side and Miscou will each be responsible for fishing five (5) commercial style experimental gillnets on the same night, once per week for a total of four (4) weeks.Region 3: Two (2) vessels & two (2) Captains in region 3 (16C), Escuminac will each be responsible for fishing five (5) commercial style experimental gillnets on the same night, once per week for a total of four (4) weeks.Region 4: Two (2) vessels & two (2) Captains in region 4 (16E), Cap-Pelé, Cape Jourimain and PEI – South side will each be responsible for fishing five (5) commercial style experimental gillnets on the same night, once per week for a total of four (4) weeks.Region 5: Two (2) & two (2) Captains vessels in region 5 (16E), PEI - North side will each be responsible for fishing five (5) commercial style experimental gillnets on the same night, once per week for a total of four (4) weeks.Duration of contract: Contract Award - February 28th, 2024