The commercial Dungeness crab fishery in Southeast Alaska will have a full fall season.
The summer fishery closed six days early this year because initial crab harvest projections were subpar. That estimate is based on data gathered dockside during the first full week of fishing in June. It fell just below the required 2.25 million-pound threshold, at 2.21 million pounds of crab; fishery managers closed the summer season early to reduce pressure on the stock.
But the fall fishery can run its full length because there were soft-shelled crabs this summer that could be harvested now.
When the crabs molt, it takes several weeks for their new shells to harden, which then makes them ready to harvest and sell. Crabs with soft shells are not marketable, so fishermen leave them in the water even if they’re big enough to be harvested legally.
Joe Stratman is a regional shellfish biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. He said the fall season can open for the full length because legal-size, soft-shell crabs contributed to the lower projected harvest.
“If we come in under threshold due to legal-size soft crab that isn’t landed, the department has a latitude to open the commercial Dungeness crab fall season for the standard duration,” Stratman said.
All the information that the department uses to manage Dungeness crab in the region comes from the commercial season — there are no department surveys. Stratman said the department determined that soft-shell crab played a role in the low initial estimate based on data from port sampling and interviews with fishermen this summer.
The department recalculated the overall harvest estimate for the fishery, accounting for the soft-shell crab that were left in the water.
Stratman said the new number arrived above the standard amount.
“We determined that we would have been over … had even some of that crab been landed,” he said.
If the soft-shell crab were not accounted for and the projections had remained lower, most of the region would have had half the allowed fishing time this fall.
Stratman said the department will release more information about the upcoming fall season this month. Most areas in the region will open Oct. 1 and close Nov. 30.
