Passage I

Snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) is a subarctic species of crab that is commercially fished in the Atlantic Ocean. Because snow crab are eaten by fish such as cod, the number of cod present in an area may affect snow crab populations. The figure below shows the mass of snow crab caught on the eastern Scotian Shelf in the Atlantic Ocean each year from 1980 through 1994. The figure also shows, for the same area, the estimated number of 1-to 3-year-old cod and the estimated number of 4- to 6-year-old cod present each year from 1980 through 1994.