Interaction Between Open Net Pen Farming, Lobster and Crab

In collaboration with CMAR and the Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture (NSDFA), Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) initiated an acoustical telemetry research project to better understand potential interactions between finfish aquaculture, lobster and crab.

Over eighty acoustic receivers were deployed in a bottom-grid around a fallowed Atlantic salmon aquaculture site in Liverpool Bay, NS between July and November 2019. Fifty American lobsters (Homarus americanus) and rock crabs (Cancer irroratus) were collected and fitted with acoustic transmitters, then released back into the bay. Acoustic telemetry tracked the lobster and crab movement around the fallowed site.

Data collection is currently being repeated in 2020 while the aquaculture site is active. In 2020, CMAR also deployed an Ocean Tracking Network (OTN) glider with an acoustic receiver, to help detect lobsters that may have left the grid area.