Abstract A predicted and communicated decline in the Newfoundland and Labrador snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) resource, the basis of the world’s largest snow crab fishery for two decades, has come to fruition. Given considerable lead time, this scenario creates an interesting dynamic to investigate how crab harvesters may have formed anticipatory behavioural responses to mitigate against the decline. In this analysis, economic, stock status, and vessel activity indicators are examined along with spatiotemporal fishing patterns before, during, and after the decline to assess harvester behaviour and fleet dynamics. We hypothesize that behaviours indicative of increased competition and a race to fish would emerge in response to the forecasted decline. Contrary to our expectations, we find no evidence of earlier or more rapid fishing, nor broader or more intense fishing patterns. Increased gear soak times were the most common adaptive response employed by harvesters, which were marginally successful in mitigating against declining catch rates and reducing discards. The majority of harvesters appeared to prosecute the fishery in a similar fashion as they historically had, and simply accepted reducing catch rates on known fishing grounds. Some historically dominant fishing grounds even became abandoned with little to no apparent adaptive responses by harvesters. Specific reasons for the general lack of behavioural adaptations to the forecasted fishery decline are unknown but are associated with an Individual Quota system, favourable product prices that have more than offset revenue losses from reduced catch, and small-scale management areas that may have rendered little or no capacity to develop adaptive strategies.

中文翻译：

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纽芬兰和拉布拉多雪蟹渔业预计下降期间的收获策略

摘要 纽芬兰和拉布拉多雪蟹 (Chionoecetes opilio) 资源的预测和沟通下降已经实现，该资源是世界上最大的雪蟹渔业二十年来的基础。考虑到相当长的准备时间，这种情况创造了一个有趣的动态来调查捕蟹者如何形成预期的行为反应来缓解下降。在此分析中，经济、种群状况和船舶活动指标与衰退之前、期间和之后的时空捕捞模式一起被检查，以评估收割机行为和船队动态。我们假设，作为对预测的下降的回应，表明竞争加剧和鱼类竞赛的行为将会出现。与我们的预期相反，我们没有发现捕鱼更早或更快速的证据，也不是更广泛或更激烈的捕鱼模式。增加渔具浸泡时间是收割机采用的最常见的适应性响应，在缓解捕获率下降和减少丢弃物方面取得了轻微的成功。大多数捕捞者似乎以与历史上类似的方式起诉渔业，并简单地接受降低已知渔场的捕获率。一些历史上占主导地位的渔场甚至被废弃，收割者几乎没有明显的适应性反应。对预测的渔业下降普遍缺乏行为适应的具体原因尚不清楚，但与个人配额系统有关，有利的产品价格足以抵消减少捕捞带来的收入损失，