Fishery Notice

The commercial prawn and shrimp by trap fishery closes coastwide for the balance of the year effective 1900 hours June 9, 2025. 
Spawner index sampling will continue to the end of the season. Vessel masters are reminded to provide assistance to the observers.  
VMS will stay active for 10 days after the coastwide closure, and must stay operational until all commercial product is offloaded. If you will have commercial product on board after June 19, please contact J.O. Thomas during office hours to ensure VMS stays operational. You are not required to contact J.O. Thomas if prawns are offloaded prior to June 19, 2025.
      
Note: 
This notice applies to South Coast and Fraser River Areas 11 to 29 and Offshore Areas 111, 121, and 123 to 127.  Please refer to the North Coast notice for Areas 1 to 10, 101 to 110, 130, and 142.

For Strait of Georgia and Howe Sound sponge reef closure areas see the following website and Fishery Notices:
https://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/oceans/ceccsr-cerceef/closures-fermetures-eng.html

Phase I
FN0571 https://notices.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fns-sap/index-eng.cfm?pg=view_notice&DOC_ID=172180&ID=all
 
Phase II
FN0205 https://notices.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fns-sap/index-eng.cfm?pg=view_notice&DOC_ID=219517&ID=all

 
Phase III
FN0039 https://notices.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fns-sap/index-eng.cfm?pg=view_notice&DOC_ID=254231&ID=all

On the first day of the fishery, May 14, 2025, harvesters are permitted to set their gear and haul and reset it once only, provided they do so by 19:00 hours. 

Effective May 15, 2025, hauling of prawn and shrimp by trap gear, line and buoys is permitted only once per day as a condition of licence in all areas of the coast. This is referred to as single hauling. 

In all areas, after opening day, all setting and hauling of prawn and shrimp traps will be permitted only between 07:00 hours (7:00 am) and 19:00 hours (7:00 pm) and hauling of traps will be permitted only once per day.

All in season area closures will be implemented at 19:00 hours unless otherwise announced. These closures will be announced by fishery notice and voicemail recording on Tuesdays and Fridays, with the respective closures coming into place on Fridays and Mondays.

Vessel masters are advised to carefully consider stability and weather conditions when loading their vessels and packing gear. 

J.O. Thomas is the service company selected by industry to provide: trap tags, logbooks, hail out, set/haul data, and the in season at-sea observer program.  The hail out number is 1-866-930-4000.

Every person working on a vessel that is fishing under a communal commercial licence must be designated by the First Nation that holds the licence. The designation must be made in writing and include the person's name and reference the communal commercial licence. The designation must be carried on-board and be produced on request of any Fishery Officer. First Nations licence holders interested in obtaining an example template to use to designate their harvesters may contact a DFO Resource Manager. 

All vessels must have a DFO-approved vessel monitoring system reporting vessel location every 15 minutes. For each VMS unit installation, replacement, transfer to another vessel, or change to the licence holder, a completed National Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) Form (https://dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fisheries-peches/sdc-cps/vessel-monitoring-surveillance-navire/index-eng.html) shall be forwarded by email to DFO.VMSRegistration-EnregistrementSSN.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca. 

Vessel masters are reminded that the Conditions of Licence require the string location and the haul time to be recorded in the harvest logbook "Time of Haul" column within one-half hour of hauling, and before the next string is hauled.   

The minimum size limit for prawns is 33 mm measured as carapace length. The minimum size for tailed prawns is 22 mm telson length.

Traps must be sorted and undersized prawns released as each trap comes on board.

All berried prawns must be released.

A total of 300 traps on 6 strings may be fished or 500 traps on 10 strings where traps have been reallocated prior to licencing. These trap and string limits are reduced in the Special Management Areas (Section 4.5.2 of the Commercial Harvest Plan). 
    
All traps shall contain a biodegradable escape mechanism ("rot cord") to allow bycatch to escape in event traps are lost.

All harvesters are required to accurately report information about the octopus catch. Closures to the harvest of octopus are described in Section 3 of the Commercial Harvest Plan.

Harvesters are reminded that Section 25(1) of the Fisheries Act prohibits all pre-fishery fishing efforts or the setting of any fishing gear or apparatus prior to the opening time at 1200 h May 14, 2025.
  
Only prawns or shrimp that are permitted to be retained under the authority of the commercial licence shall be on board the licenced vessel. 

The maximum size of containers used for frozen-at-sea prawn tails is 946 ml. All containers of frozen-at-sea prawn tails must be carry a label supplied by J.O. Thomas.

Any entanglement in fishing gear of a marine mammal or collision between a vessel and a marine mammal shall be reported immediately to DFO by telephone at 1-800-465-4336 and http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/species-especes/mammals-mammiferes/report-rapport/page01-eng.html.

Any lost fishing gear shall be reported within 24 hours of landing in port after determining the gear was lost using the form at https://internet.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/en/login

Refer to the 2025/26 Prawn and Shrimp by Trap Integrated Fisheries Management Plan for the Commercial Harvest Plan, closure area descriptions, Special Management Area (SMA) restrictions and contact numbers for further information or clarification. To obtain a copy of the current Prawn and Shrimp by Trap Integrated Fisheries Management Plan (IFMP): Contact Dillon Buerk at Dillon.buerk@dfo-mpo.gc.ca. 

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Dillon Buerk dillon.buerk@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Coral Cargill coral.cargill@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Mike Kattilakoski mike.kattilakoski@dfo-mpo.gc.ca  
Abigail Mitchell abigail.mitchell@dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Fisheries & Oceans Operations Center - FN0511
Sent June 6, 2025 at 1502

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Printed from the Pacific Region web site on June 13, 2026 at 0531