Soft-shelled and white crabs are the molters of the year which are identified by their carapace conditions 1 or 2. Soft shelled or white commercial-sized adult males represent the recruitment to the fishery for the following year as the crab harden and fill up with meat becoming crab of carapace condition 3, the best commercial quality on the market. [...] The data were compiled by Informatics and Statistics Branches of the Quebec and Gulf Regions of The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), and verified by Science Gulf Region. [...] The mean catch-per-unit-of-effort (CPUE) in kilograms per trap hauls (kg/th) of the fleet in year (i) was calculated as the ratio of total catches (yi) and the corresponding number of trap hauls (thi) as reported in the logbooks: CPUEi = yi / thi. [...] This protocol allows the closure of smaller areas (grids or sectors) of the fishery with high incidence of soft-shelled males in the catch without closing the entire fishery. [...] The mean percentage of soft-shelled used to close grids or sectors is calculated using the ratio of the number of soft-shelled males and the total number of males caught in commercial traps before discarding.