Dataset

Scotian Shelf Snow Crab Tagging

OTN-OBIS MeasurementOrFact Open in mapper Explore occurrences

This is the OBIS extraction of the Ocean Tracking Network and Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Scotian Shelf Snow Crab Tagging, consisting of the release tagging metadata, i.e. the location and date when the tagged animal was released, and summarized detection events of tagged individuals. If readers are interested in the source dataset they may also inquire with the project PIs as listed here or on the OTN web site (https://members.oceantrack.org/project?ccode=ZSC). Abstract:The snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) is the third most important fishery species in terms of landing value in Nova Scotia. Based on fishery landings, snow crabs are thought to segregate by sex and size. The species is migratory, based on the seasonal disappearance and reappearance of crabs in different geographical areas, and limited tagging studies that have been conducted to date. However, the tagging studies necessary to document the scale and scope of such migrations have not yet been conducted. Information about the migratory movements of the species will be very important to managers as they determine quotas for fisheries in the different crab fishing zones (geographical management areas). At present, snow crab movements are too poorly understood to assist in developing management regimes for the species. This project involves the tagging and release of snow crab onto the Scotian Shelf by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans along with subsequent deployments of acoustic receivers in order to track their movements. Additional receivers have been deployed in the area through collaboration with industrial partners. Tagging has occurred in several areas off Cape Breton, Halifax and within St. Anne's Bank MPA.

Citation: Zisserson, B., Choi, J., Cook, A., Cameron, B. 2013. Scotian Shelf snow crab tagging.. Accessed via the Ocean Tracking Network OBIS IPT on INSERT DATE

Published: November 05, 2025 at 20:57

License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License

URL: https://members.oceantrack.org/ipt/resource?r=otndfo-bioscotianshelfsno

Contacts:

Ocean Tracking Network Data Centre
Ocean Tracking Network

Jonathan Pye
Ocean Tracking Network

Brent Cameron
Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Adam Cook
Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Jae Choi
Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Ben Zisserson
Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Amy Glass
Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Annick Drouin
Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs du Québec

Martin Castonguay
Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Maurice Lamontagne Institute

Richard Davis
Dalhousie University

Dave Hebert
Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Jean-Marc Nicolas
Emera Inc.

William Patterson
University of Florida Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences

Bruce Martin
JASCO Applied Sciences

Shawn Robinson
Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Fred Whoriskey
Dalhousie University

Ryan Stanley
Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Chris McKindsey
Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Stephanie A. Boudreau
Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Gulf Fisheries Centre

Clayton Pollock
National Park Service

Kristen Ewen
National Park Service

25,991
occurrence records
1,502
measurements and facts
1
taxa
1
species

Taxa

Missing and invalid fields

Field Missing Invalid
coordinateUncertaintyInMeters 301
1.2%
maximumDepthInMeters 25,991
100.0%
minimumDepthInMeters 25,991
100.0%

Quality flags

The OBIS data quality flags are documented at https://github.com/iobis/obis-qc.

Flag Dropped Records
NO_DEPTH 25,991
100.0%

Measurement types

DNA derived data