The Quebec region of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is responsible for the assessment of several fish and invertebrate stocks exploited in the Estuary and the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence. The commercial catches sampling program is one of the sources of information used to complete these assessments. The data collected by this program, at wharf or at sea, offers among other things the advantage of a relatively large spatio-temporal coverage and provides some of the necessary knowledge to assess the demography and the structure of the exploited populations. This program is implemented by specialized DFO staff whose main mandate is to collect biological data on groundfish, pelagic fish and marine invertebrate species that are commercially exploited in the various marine communities.

The following species have been sampled by this program from 1976 to present:

1. American lobster (Homarus americanus)

2. American plaice (Hippoglossoides platessoides)

3. Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua)

4. Atlantic halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus)

5. Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus)

6. Atlantic lyre crab (Hyas araneus)

7. Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus)

8. Atlantic surfclam (Spisula solidissima)

9. Arctic Lyre Crab (Hyas coarctatus)

10. Capelin (Mallotus villosus)

11. Common softshell clam (Mya arenaria)

12. Giant scallop (Placopecten magellanicus)

13. Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides)

14. Green urchin (Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis)

15. Iceland scallop (Chlamys islandica)

16. Redfish (Sebastes sp.)

17. Rock crab (Cancer irroratus)

18. Sea cucumber (Cucumaria frondosa)

19. Snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio)

20. Stimpson surfclam (Mactromeris polynyma)

21. Waved whelk (Buccinum undatum)

22. White hake (Urophycis tenuis)

23. Winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus)

24. Yellowtail flounder (Limanda ferruginea)

For more information concerning these species, see the «Related Products» section below.