The fishing season has ended for Bering Sea Tanner crab. Crabbers caught the record-low quota of 2 million pounds just before the end of March.
Seventeen vessels went out for tanner across the fishery’s east and west districts, said Ethan Nichols, the assistant area management biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Unalaska.
“Some boats caught their quota in the fall. Some caught it in the spring,” Nichols said. “Overall, the fishery performance was pretty good.”
Nichols said the average size of the crab caught was smaller than in seasons past. That could be because buyers agreed to accept crab they would’ve previously turned away.
“Vessels were targeting and retaining crabs that were smaller than the industry-preferred size of five inches, but still perfectly legal to retain,” Nichols said. “And that was somewhat to make up for the lack of snow crab coming out of the Bering Sea.”
The snow crab fishery was closed this year for the first time in its history. After a drastic drop in population, the stock has been declared “overfished.” The red king crab fishery was also canceled this season, for the second year in a row, due to a low and struggling population.
The Bering Sea crab fleet has been hit hard between those closures and the low tanner quota, and state officials have sought federal disaster relief.
As for next season, Nichols said results from an upcoming federal trawl survey this summer will help determine how the crab populations are doing — and whether any of the fisheries will be able to open.
Meanwhile, the Makushin/Skan Bay section of the smaller Eastern Aleutian tanner crab fishery opened over the winter for the first time in five years.
One vessel participated in the commercial fishery off Unalaska Island, catching about 49,000 pounds of crab, said Nichols.
He said there are signs that the section’s tanner population is doing well. When it was surveyed last year, the stock had nearly doubled since 2021, reaching its highest level since 2005.
“So we’re seeing increases in abundance in the Makushin/Skan Bay section over the last several years,” Nichols said. “And we’re optimistic that we might be able to have small fisheries for next year, as well.”
Nichols said results from an upcoming state trawl survey will help determine whether the section will open again next season.
The Eastern Aleutian fishery also has two other sections — Unalaska/Kalekta Bay and Akutan — that remained closed this winter. Nichols said those sections haven’t opened in at least a decade because the stocks don’t have enough mature male crab to allow for commercial fishing.
Laura Kraegel covers Unalaska and the Aleutian Islands for KUCB . Originally from Chicago, she first came to Alaska to work at KNOM, reporting on Nome and the Bering Strait Region. (laura@kucb.org / 907.581.6700)
