Commercial red king crab fishermen in Southeast Alaska are getting a competitive fishery this year, the state Department of Fish and Game announced this week.
The fishery starts Nov. 1.
It’s the second year in a row that the fishery will open, after several years of not having one.
Adam Messmer, regional shellfish biologist for the department, said it’s the first time since 2001-03 that the region is getting a consecutive fishery.
“So, you know, 20-plus years since we’ve had fisheries back to back,” Messmer said.
There needs to be at least 200,000 pounds of harvestable crab in the water in order for a commercial fishery to open in Southeast. This year’s harvest level is just over 213,000 pounds — a bit higher than the fishery had last year.
The department gets that estimate by surveying seven bays and checking on the crab stock to see how much is available.
Messmer said the consecutive opener rides a red king crab population boom seen in a few bays.
“We’re trying to capitalize on that for as long as possible, until there’s another pulse coming up behind it,” he said. “But nobody really knows when that will happen.”
He said three bays in particular look promising, and last year’s fishery indicated some “bright spots” outside of the survey areas, too.
Messmer said there’s more legal-size crab this year.
“We kind of expected that to happen because we did see a lot of the pre-recruits still around in the surveys last year,” he said. “Those are basically just-undersized crab that are gonna molt into the fishery after one year.”
Enough of those crab grew to allow for this upcoming commercial opener. However, Messmer said, now they’re seeing less undersized crab coming up.
“There’s still some … but not to the same extent,” Messmer said. “But you know, after having the fishery, seeing that legal-size go up a bit means that we didn’t overharvest on them last year.”
The department allows fishermen to harvest a certain amount of crab in each area of the fishery. Those limits will be a little bit different than last year — some have more and some less. Messmer said they’ll announce those details later next week. Pot tags, logbook packets and registrations will be available after Sept. 11.
Messmer couldn’t comment on the price the crabs will go for because that factor comes from processors during the season. But last year’s red king crab fishery — the first to open in several years — generated more money than the past two decades combined, valued at nearly $5.4 million.
Messmer said he expects participation, and the overall fishery, to be similar to last year. Of the 59 red king crab permits in the region, 51 permit holders sold crab last year.
