Fisheries Service

PROGRESS REPORT # c. 2.

11. ENVIRONMENT CANADA FISHERIES SERVICE

PROGRESS REPORT NO. 8 0

- 0.NAMCRLIAI V-SHIt!;) ND ITS

RE! Ailto.sNr. it` TO ThE EX?' 01 TS RIVER

F; 3;1 .,:a0r,ILILATION

-- P;nr LLL

RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT BRANCH NEWFOUNDLAND REGION ST. JOHN'S SHELVED WITH 1971 SERIALS no . 80 c . 2 A Descriptive Report of the Commercial Fishery and its Relation to the Exploits River Fish Population

Morley Farwell

Resource Development Branch St. John's, Newfoundland

Sept., 1971. Introduction

The Exploits River Development Project has as one of its responsibilities the stocking of tributary streams above Grand Falls.

The proper management of the commercial fishery utilization of Exploits

River produced fish would provide adequate escapement to the river for recreational and procreational needs. This report describes the status of the knowledge of the commercial fishery in the Bay of Exploits. It is hoped that further investigation will reveal a regulatory scheme whereby escapement can be controlled on a yearly basis.

Commercial Fishery

Landings: The Exploits River is contained within the commercial fishery

area division number B-07 (Fig. 1). The landings and amount of fathoms are

available in varying degrees of accuracy and completeness for the period

1960-1970. This incompleteness is especially obvious in the figures

available for the individual communities in the bottom of the Bay of

Exploits (Table I). The escapement, catch, and effort for the Bay of Exploits are

shown in Figure 2. The landings of fish in the whole of area B are in-

significantly correlated with the escapement to the river. However, the

relationship between the yearly section 07 landings and the escapement to the

river is positively correlated (Y = -12,793 + 25.5 X, 8 d.f., r = 0.758,

p 0.05) for the years 1961-1970 (Fig. 3). The data available for the bottom

of the Bay of Exploits are insufficient to determine correlations of

landings with escapement. The data available does show that the distribution NEWFOUNDLAND

Cape St. John

LOCATION MAP

— 1

. r--- 1 1 ep.ivo

10 5 0

• scale of miles

Fig. 1 Location Map — Area "8", Showing Section 07, and Bottom of the

Bay of Exploits TABLE I

YEAR 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970

Area "B" catch 206,594 153,775 219,971 205,688 260,313 159,182 199,469 347,775 396,551 232,000 769,784 Area "B-07" catch 74,413 17,516 34,451 56,898 68,700 16,363 23,285 66,099 60,145 30,000 33,943 Area "B-07" fathoms 28,360 28,440 29,460 33,670 37,770 38,135

Bishop's Count 1,160 960 1,250 1,450 1,330 2,082 1,477 G. Rattling Count 103 372 1,068 528 1,868 777 1,412 1,204 2,021 1,182 1,221 Exploits Angle 460 270 690 460 1,130 350 570 320 656 432 373 G. Rattling Angle 86 37 171 46 147 49 225 90 91

0-5

- 2,310 1,000 - Norris Arm lbs 4,000 1,375 220 11,400 - 6,050 fath 1,290 1,225 1,435 1,265 1,255 1,315 5-10

- 1,000 - Botwood lbs 3,800 1,485 110 - - - 2,275 1,980 1,705 2,020 fath - 1,950 1,595 5-10

- - 80 200 145 Burnt Arm lbs - 105

- - - - fath - - - 10-15 1,000 - Phillips Head lbs 2,300 385 110 - - 520 - 440 300 450 530 fath - 520 10-15

- - 1,000 - Northern Arm lbs 1,000 82 - - 150 50 205 195 fath - - 320 10-15

- 720 1,000 - Lawrencton lbs 2,800 - - 1,200 765 900 1,090 1,020 fath - - 283 745 15-20

- - 2,000 - Point of Bay lbs 3,200 82 110 - 100 235 195 210 - 300 205 fath - - 270 15-20

- 400 - Porterville lbs 2,300 - - - 640 715 845 220 fath - 100 540 500 20-25 Browns Arm lbs 2,800 650 100 60 - 250 fath 65 60, 180 20-25 Stanhope lbs 1,800 160 600 120 270 60 200 480 216 285 fath - 66 153 285 340

lif-F19‘01•CS •-•ter C.3 coik- cAci,,a cm- I cs -re•o•A Inev.:0-. 6-P Ey ple.ts ▪ - 80,000 AREA B-07 --FATHOMS 70,000

60,000

50,000

-C I

C 40,000

C 3 ■.,,002, J

2.,,U00

,/ n.)n I ,, , 00 (2) — 66 67 68b 1960 St 52 63 64 65 Year YEAR! Y CATCH AND EFFORT FOR AREA B-07

2000 /1\ ------ANGLING AMPi

1500 \ I

/ /N / 11 / / \ / 1

f I 1 \ 1

o I 10 00 / / 1 ber / l m ■ I\ Nu / 1 I\

/ \ / I N / S. / \ r \ / I / / / . ■ \ I / \\ / / I / / N. / / \ \ I \ r 500 / / I / \ \ %, \ / \ N. / v ■ /

1 I I I 100 1 i I I I 65 66 67 58 69 70 1960 61 62 63 64 Year YEARLY EXPLOITS ANGLING AND ESCAPEMENT TO CAMP I

FIG. 2 80,000

70,000 0

60,000 0

50,000

- 12,793 4-255X ) bs r = 0.758 (l

h 40,000 .

tc p4.0 05 Ca 7 0 - 8 a 30,000 Are

20,000

a 0

10,000

1 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 2800 3200 1200 1600 2000 2400 Number of Fish

FIG. 3 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AREA B-07 LANDINGS AND ESCAPEMENT TO EXPLOITS RIVER -2-

of catch within the bottom of the Bay is highest around the Phillips Head,

Northern Arm, Lawrenceton area and decreases both toward and Away from the river mouth (Fig. 4a).

Effort:

The fathoms of net registered in area B-07 has increased slightly in the past few years but the variations in catch or escapement do not 2 appear to be correlated with the fathoms fished (see Fig. 3). The distribution of fathoms of net follows a different pattern from the commercial landings with the peak occurring in the Botwood, Burnt Arm area and dropping slightly toward the mouth and decreasing markedly away from the river mouth

(see Fig. 4b).

Tag Returns:

The 1964 recaptures of Exploits River adults tagged in the summer

of 1963 yielded a few more clues to the patterning of the commercial fishery.

There were 101 commercial recaptures all from the Northeast coast of

Newfoundland. 70% were taken outside the bottom of the Bay of Exploits and

30% were taken within the bottom of the Bay of Exploits (i.e. 25 miles or

less from the river mouth). The recapture distribution is shown on Figure 1.

Of the recaptures in the bottom of the Bay of Exploits, 53% were

taken within 10 miles of the mouth of the river, that is, from Botwood and

Burnt Arm inward (see Fig. 4c). The distribution pattern of these recaptures

follows quite closely the pattern of net distribution within the bottom of

the Bay of Exploits but it varies from the distribution pattern of the catch

as can be observed by comparing Figure 4a, b and c.

40 1960 - -1969

30 _c (A) 0 0 20 o o

1 5-20 20- 25 0-5 5-10 10-15

—1967

40 ---- 1J 68- - -1969

— -1970 30 (B) E 0

••••• 20 0 \

o o 10

1 1 0 I I 20-25 0-5 5-10 10-15 15-20

30 es r (C ) tu 20 ap c Re 10 %

1 I I I 0 1 20-25 C-5 5-10 10-15 15-20 Browns Arm Norris Arm Botwood Philips Hd. Point of Bay Burnt Arm Northern Arm Porterville Stanhope Lourenceton

FIG.4 : CATCH, FATHOMS, RECAPTURES FROM BOTTOM OF EXPLOITS -3-

Figure 5 shows that the recapture of fish followed a definite temporal pattern within 45 miles from the river mouth with a significant negative correlation (Y = 8.5 - 0.14X, 50 d.f., r = -0.85, p 0.01) existing between the week of recapture and the distance from the river mouth. This relationship shows that early recaptures were made offshore whereas the fish were recaptured onshore later in the summer. The time of recaptures near the river mouth coincides closely with the timing of the run into the river.

Out of a total of 111 tagged fish recovered in 1964 there were 101 commercial fishery recaptures, 3 angling recaptures and 7 fish counted through the fishway at Camp 1. This gives a utilization breakdown for returning spawners of 91% taken in the commercial fishery, 37. taken by anglers and a 6% spawning escapement.

Discussion

The yearly commercial fishery catches within section "07" of area B are correlated with the yearly escapement to the Exploits River, therefore, there must be a fair proportion of native Exploits River fish taken within this fishery area. Area B in all likelihood contains too many fish of mixed stocks to allow any correlation of catch and Exploits escapement to be evident. The bottom of the Bay of Exploits data are inconclusive but it is logical to assume that a high correlation exists between landings and escapement to the river because of the proximity of this area to the river and also the greater distance from the offshore waters where mixed stocks would be prevalent in the landings. Aug

Y= 8 5 - !‘-; July 30 0 el< 0 01 --(D 85 siq

N: 52 July 21

July 15

• July 7

0 Ja June 30 V

• o•-• CX, • June 21

0 0 June I5

June 7

0 0 June I

0 1 1 40 45 20 25 30 35 0 5 10 15 Distance from Mouth of Exploits River (miles)

FIG. 5! RELATIONSHIP 'BETWEEN RECAPTURE TIME AND DISTANCE FROM MOUTH OF EXPLOITS -.4-

The effort bears no obvious trends or correlations with the Exploits escapement and the incomplete nature of the data does not assist in making any conclusions. However, it appears that there is a relatively consistent amount of effort and that variations in catch depends mainly on the yearly variations in the population of fish. The new regulations should diminish the landings of Exploits River fish if there is a significant reduction of effort in section "07" and more specifically in the bottom of the Bay of

Exploits. More information on the effort and catch within the bottom of the

Bay is necessary before the influence of this fishery on the Exploits River escapement can be properly assessed.

Recapture data for 1963 tagged fish shows that 30% of the Exploits

fish caught commercially are taken within 25 miles of the mouth of the river

and 16% are taken within 10 miles of the river mouth. The distribution of

recaptures is similar to the distribution of the effort within 25 miles of

the mouth, therefore Exploits River fish are taken in direct relation to the

amount of gear being fished in this area.

The total catch within this area follows a slightly different

pattern with the largest catch made near the outside of this area. Thus

within 25 miles of the river mouth there appears to be a commercial take of

Exploits fish with a superimposition of other stocks of fish being taken

especially at the outside edge of the area. Therefore, regulation of only

Exploits fish would be possible by altering fishing effort within approximately

15 miles of the river mouth. From recapture data it appears that the fish are taken in greatest

numbers at progressively later times as they approach the river mouth. The -5-

timing appears to be such that at 20 miles from the mouth the run starts about the 20th of June and at 10 miles from the mouth the run starts about

5th of July. The peak of the run at the Bishop's Falls trap is about the 3rd week of July. Further timing information is necessary as a prerequisite to regulations of fishing times within the bottom of the Bay of Exploits.

Beginning this year detailed data are being compiled within the bottom of the Bay of Exploits. This data will show distribution and timing

of catches and effort. A sampling program will attempt to discover similarities

of the commercially taken fish to the Exploits River escapement. Recaptures

of tagged Noel Paul fish will also give further information necessary to the

proper regulation of the commercial fishery exploitation of Exploits River

salmon. Firm recommendations for regulations of this commercial fishery

will be made in a future report. -6-

SUMMARY

1. Landings within Section 07 of Area B are correlated with the escapement to the river.

2. Data on landings in the bottom of Bay of Exploits are incomplete in many years.

3. Peak landings in bottom of Bay of Exploits occur around Phillips Head, Laurenceton area.

4. Fathoms of gill nets in Section 07 has increased slightly in past few years.

5. Peak of distribution of gill nets occurs in the Botwood, Burnt Arm area.

6. Thirty percent of 1964 commercial tag recaptures were taken in the bottom of the Bay of Exploits, and sixteen percent were taken within 10 miles of river mouth.

7. Distribution of tag recaptures is similar to the distributions of effort in the bottom of the Bay of Exploits.

8. The times of recaptures is correlated with the distance from the river mouth.

9. The utilization ratio for returning spawners is 91 commercial: 3 angling: 6 spawning escapement.

CONCLUSIONS

1. There are fewer mixed stocks landed within section 07 than in the whole of Area B.

2. Variation in yearly landings occur because of variations in the populations of fish rather than variation in Fishing effort.

3. Regulations aimed only at Exploits River fish would have to be restricted to the area within about 15 miles of the river mouth.