Tag Archives: red king crab fishery
Alaska fishermen will be allowed to harvest lucrative red king crab in the Bering Sea
Alaska fishermen will be able to harvest red king crab for the first time in two years, offering a slight reprieve to the beleaguered fishery beset by low numbers likely exacerbated by climate change. There was no such rebound for snow crab, however, and that fishery will remain closed for a second straight year, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Friday. “The Bristol Bay red king crab fishery for the prior two seasons were closed based on low abundance and particularly low abundance of mature-sized female crabs,” said Mark Stichert, the state department’s ground fish and shellfish management coordinator, “Based on survey results from this year, those numbers have improved, some signs of modest optimism in terms of improving abundance in Bristol Bay red king crab overall and that has allowed for a small but still conservative fishery for 2023 as the total population size is still quite low,” he said. >>click to read<<11:52
Bristol Bay red king crab fishery could return after two years on ice
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is set to decide Friday whether or not to reopen the Bristol Bay red king crab fishery, which has been closed since 2021. Their decision will be based on recommendations from the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which is meeting through Oct. 11 in Anchorage. During the Council’s meeting Tuesday, the Crab Plan Team presented data and analysis on Bristol Bay crab stocks from the summer trawl survey to the Scientific and Statistical Committee. Mike Litzow is a co-chair for the team and the shellfish assessment program manager and director at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Kodiak Lab. Litzow said while male and female crab are still at historic lows, the fishery is not at or approaching an “overfished” status. >>click to read<< 08:48
Bristol Bay red king crab fishery trends toward closure as fleet reports slow fishing, aging stock
This season, the 54-vessel fleet has reported slow, spotty fishing, and the stock continues to show signs of decline. The current quota — 3.8 million pounds — is the lowest since the fishery was rationalized in 2005. “A lot of boats had to scratch their way through the season,” said Ethan Nichols, assistant area management biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. “There were only one to two large schools of legal males that were reported to us from captains out on the grounds. So the season was definitely a bit of a grind.” >click to read< 20:18
Murkowski, Young, Hastings, Press Pritzker – “We urge you to use your authority consistent with the Antideficiency Act to responsibly manage the 2013 Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands crab fisheries.
The Bristol Bay red king crab fishery in Alaska is scheduled to open next Tuesday, October 15th, but before crab fishing boats are allowed to fish, they must be issued quota permits by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) – which the Department of Commerce has shuttered for issuing permits until the government is funded. [email protected] 09:27
With ‘Deadliest Catch’ cameras onboard, crabbers head to Bristol Bay -an increasing presence of Alaska Natives and Alaskan-owned boats.
The Bristol Bay red king crab fishery opened Monday with a larger quota, Hollywood on board again, and an increasing presence of Alaska Natives and Alaskan-owned boats. “We call it the Yupikest catch,” said Morgen Crowe, executive director of the Coastal Villages Region Fund (CVRF), the community development quota group in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. CVRF has purchased three crabbers, the Bering Sea, Arctic Sea, and North Sea, and about a third of combined crew members are Yupik Eskimo deckhands. While none are captains yet, that’s only a matter of time and training, Crowe said, adding that the crew earned $50,000 to $80,000 during the last snow crab season, Crowe said. The Western Alaska Community Development Quota (CDQ) program allocates a percentage of,,,,,,,,,,Read More http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/deadliest-catch-cameras-onboard-crabbers-head-bristol-bay?page=full
