Production and consumption of krill in the Gulf of St. Lawrence: toward an ecosystem-based stockassessment

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In the past decade economic interests in exploitation of the highly valuable krill resources have grown in the natural resource industries. In Canada, interest in potential new krill source focusses on the evaluation of biochemical composition of northern and arctic krill for nutraceutical, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. The prime objective of this proposal is to examine the ecological resilience of the krill stocks in the St Lawrence system prior to human exploitation. In this context Canadian krill stocks must continue to represent a reliable basis for higher trophic predators depending largely on this resource, a prerequisite before allowing any human exploitation. Therefore, the role of krill as a forage species must be evaluated before any decision on krill exploitation of the stocks can be made. The proposed research addresses the strategic importance of being able to assess the natural variability in quality and quantity of krill stocks in the Gulf of St. Lawrence ecosystem, in view of krill becoming a potential new sustainable exploited resource in accordance with the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) policies on new emerging fisheries and new fisheries for forage species. A combined effort of university and governmental researchers and an industrial partner will provide new understanding of biological processes and population dynamics of two sympatric krill species, by a complementary approach, including field observations, laboratory experiments, and modelling. Most importantly, by coupling IBMs of the krill population dynamics and productivity to the 3D dynamics of the physical environment and by modelling the krill stock biomass in the framework of a mass-balanced food web model, our research will go beyond the descriptive level and will provide DFO with an integrated management tool to help establish a fact-determined basis for decision makers and eventually also for industrial stakeholders in risk evaluation and management.