Tag Archives: Bering Sea crab fishery

Optimism abounds in the Bering Sea crab fishery

Bering Sea crabbers saw upticks in crab recruits during a good fishery for the 2018-19 season, along with strong prices. The crab season opens in mid-October for red king crab, tanners and snow crab (opilio), and while fishing goes fast for red kings in order to fill orders for year-end markets in Japan, the fleet typically drops pots for the other species in January. Crabbers said they saw strong showings of younger crab poised to enter the three fisheries. Only male crabs of a certain size can be retained for sale. “For Bristol Bay red king crab, >click to read<10:29

Red crab fishing season underway

redkingcrabThe Bristol Bay red king crab fishing season is underway, and the quota is almost the same as last year’s, at 9.7 million pounds. That’s down slightly from last year, and so is the number of boats. On Tuesday, 58 boats were registered, and a few more are on their way north from Seattle, according to biologist Miranda Westphal of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, in Unalaska. Last year, 63 crab boats were signed up, she said. The situation is different for another big Bering Sea crab fishery. When fishermen set pots for snow crab in a few months, they will have a lot less to catch. Read the rest here 19:11

Alaska’s Bering Sea crab fishery gets underway

As of Jan. 9, fishermen had harvested 10 million pounds of snow crab, from a 67.95 million pound quota, according to Fitch, who said 42 vessels had participated so far, and more are expected including boats presently fishing for Tanner crab or Pacific cod with the same pots used for crab fishing.  She expects that total participation will rise to about 70 vessels chasing snow crab. Read the rest here 13:37