Atlantic wolffish (Anarhichas lupus) COSEWIC assessment and status report 2012: chapter 12
The Atlantic Wolffish was first designated a species of Special Concern by COSEWIC in November 2000 and the status was confirmed in 2012. The species is listed under the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA). It may also receive some habitat protection under the federal Fisheries Act, as there is a small fishery for it, but the extent of such protection is unclear.
As a species of Special Concern, the Species at Risk Act’s prohibitions do not apply to the Atlantic Wolffish. However, the related Management Plan (Kulka et al. 2007) recommends that live release protocols and reporting in fisheries logbooks apply to this species. The implementation of this recommendation is at the discretion of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. There are no specific protection provisions or catch limits for Atlantic Wolffish under Canada’s Fisheries Act. Provisions to protect other species targeted in fisheries which take Atlantic wolffish as bycatch may provide some protection.
This species is listed as likely to be designated threatened or vulnerable under the Quebec’s Act Respecting Threatened or Vulnerable Species (Loi sur les espèces menacées ou vulnérables; R.S.Q., c E-12.01). This status does not carry any substantive protections. The US National Marine Fisheries Service received a petition to list Atlantic wolffish under the Endangered Species Act in 2008. Following preparation of a status review report, NMFS rejected the proposal (November 2009) (US Federal Register 2009). There is no mention of this species in the CITES appendices.
The species has not been ranked at the global or Canadian level by NatureServe, and is listed between Vulnerable and Apparently Secure (S3S4) by Quebec. It has not been assessed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
In the Canadian portion of the northwest Atlantic there are five small marine protected areas as well as a few other areas closed to trawling. However, the area of protection for Atlantic Wolffish is very small compared to its widespread distribution and habitat requirements. The effects of these closures on fish that live in the protected and closed areas are unknown, and their overall impacts on the population are apt to be very limited.
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