Taylor et al.: Snow crab, Chionoecetes opilio. fishery collapse 



413 



Figure 1 



Offshore Avalon Peninsula and Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland, Chionoecetes opilio fishing 

 grounds. 



magnitude of the collapse in catch rates and land- 

 ings off the Avalon Peninsula is unprecedented. 



This paper examines biological data, fishermen's 

 log returns, and temperature records from the Avalon 

 Peninsula in comparison with similar data from 

 Bonavista Bay in an attempt to describe possible 

 reasons for this collapse. 



Materials and methods 



A total of 27 spring and fall cruises were conducted 

 on the commercial fishing grounds off the Avalon Pen- 

 insula and in Bonavista Bay ( Fig. 1 ) during 1979-88 

 to monitor population characteristics and catch rates. 

 Fishing stations were selected randomly and strati- 



