Project Title: Development of empirical harvest control rules for the southern New England Jonah crab fishery

Principal Investigators: Corinne Truesdale (RI DEM), Jeremy Collie (URI GSO) 

Funding Source: Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) 

This project will use a collaborative approach to develop harvest control rules for the data-limited southern New England Jonah crab fishery. For most of the 20th century, Jonah crab was considered a bycatch species of the American lobster fishery. Over the past twenty years, however, there has been a substantial increase in Jonah crab landings as lobster fishers have pivoted to target this species. Jonah crab remains a data-limited species for which a stock assessment has not yet been conducted; thus, the effects of the growing fishery on population status are not well understood. In this project, collaborative workshops will be held to solicit Jonah crab fishery stakeholders’ perspectives on potential harvest control rules for the fishery and suggestions for metrics to use in assessing the Jonah crab stock. A population simulation tool will be developed to model southern New England Jonah crab population dynamics and to test the proposed harvest control rules’ effects on the stock. The participatory harvest control rule development process is intended to facilitate the identification of control rules that are workable across a diverse group of stakeholders and represent optimal management strategies for the fishery.