Southeast Alaska’s next commercial golden king crab and Tanner crab fisheries will open on Feb. 17. The Tanner crab population is on a slight decline, whereas golden king crab is on track for an increased harvest.
Recent Tanner crab stock surveys show less mature biomass compared to years prior. But according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the fishery can still expect a normal season, consistent with the past couple of decades.
“The harvest has been steady for the last 25 years, pretty much, besides a couple years in 2007, 2008 where it kind of dipped down a little bit. But it hangs right around a million pounds every year, pretty consistently,” said Adam Messmer, Regional Shellfish Biologist for Fish and Game.
Many participating fishermen have dual permits for both Tanner and golden king crab. According to Messmer, that typically means more participation in whichever fishery is doing better, while the other fishery’s stock builds back up.
The golden king crab fishery is smaller than the Tanner fishery, with about 41 permit holders participating in 2024. Its overall guideline harvest level —the estimate of how much stock can be sustainably fished in a given season— is roughly 25% higher than last season at 341,500 pounds total for 2025.
The last commercial golden king crab fishery harvested about 470,000 pounds. Messmer said much of that high harvest was taken from the East Central management area, which includes waters around Mitkof and Kupreanof Islands. The area saw a significant increase in golden king crab stock during recent seasons, following years of low numbers.
Messmer said sometimes catching more crab indicates a “pulse” or sudden rise in population. And areas with higher crab concentrations may get a higher harvest level for the next season.
“Every once in a while, you’ll get a huge pulse of crab that come into the fishery,” he said. “The idea is to try and keep those crab around as long as possible until the next pulse, which doesn’t always happen.”
The commercial golden king crab fishery is starting to see a higher harvest now than in recent years. And with higher numbers, Messmer speculates more fishermen will prioritize catching golden king over Tanner crab.
“We’re kind of in that cycle of the goldens being on the upswing, and more guys probably going to start out golden king crab fishing than Tanner fishing, so effort on Tanner will probably be down from previous years,” Messmer said.
About 63 permits participated in the commercial Tanner fishery last season.
Messmer said Fish and Game won’t know the average value until the first crab of the season are sold. But the previous Tanner crab fishery was “right around the long-term average,” worth roughly $2.5 million at $3.45 per pound. Last season’s golden king crab fishery was worth about $4.6 million at $12.80 a pound, which he said was “up a little bit from the past few years.”
Registration for both commercial fisheries opened on Dec. 18. The deadline for fishermen to register in the fisheries without being charged a late fee is Jan. 21.
Daily vessel call-ins will be mandatory again for the golden king crab fishery. The call-ins will be required starting Feb. 16, the day before the fisheries open, to help the state know where the effort will begin.