In the last decade, there was just one commercial red king crab fishery in Southeast Alaska. But a proposal going before the Alaska Board of Fisheries could potentially change the tide for future openings.
The proposal, submitted by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, could allow a smaller commercial fishery to open when stock levels are lower than required.
“It would create opportunity where there hasn’t been many opportunities in the past,” said Adam Messmer, regional shellfish biologist for Fish and Game.
In order to open the Southeast commercial red king crab fishery, state regulations require there to be a stock of at least 200,000 pounds regionally.
“The 200,000-pound threshold … isn’t a biological threshold,” Messmer said. “It was created by the processors many years ago, saying that they couldn’t make money on anything less than 200,000 pounds. That was back when red crab was three or four dollars a pound. And times have changed…”
Red king crab is a low-volume, high-value fishery. The crabs can bring in over $100 each.
But the state’s red king crab stock estimations for the region have repeatedly fallen short of 200,000 pounds.
Fish and Game’s proposal to the Board of Fish explains that there will not be a commercial red king crab opening in Southeast Alaska while crab stocks are below that minimum threshold.
The proposal looks to allow a small, conservatively managed commercial fishery by introducing an individual catch limit for commercial permit holders. This would divide up the catch between however many commercial permits are eligible to fish that year and allow for a commercial opening when the region’s estimated stock is less than 200,000 pounds. When that minimum threshold is met, a competitive commercial fishery would be held like usual.
This plan was developed over several years with collaboration between Fish and Game and permit holders. Craig Evans is the president of the Petersburg Vessel Owners Association, a key party in forming the proposal. At a Petersburg Borough Assembly meeting on Jan. 6, he said the plan has been a long time coming.
“A better part of a decade, we’ve been working on this issue to try to get more access to the red crab fishery,” he said.
Though the proposal could have allowed just a few more commercial openings in the last decade, Evans said the plan is still a start and a step forward.
“It’s something that we can work with and … hopefully improve as time goes on. But right now, it’s basically we don’t have a fishery, and under the current regime, we probably won’t be getting fisheries,” said Evans. “This will get us back on the water, and hopefully we can improve it … as the years come.”
A similar proposal was brought to the Board of Fish in previous cycles, but wasn’t approved. Evans hopes this version is better received.
But, not every proposal supports more commercial crabbing.
Territorial Sportsmen Inc. —a Juneau-based group— submitted a different proposal looking to completely prohibit commercial crabbing for red kings in the Juneau area and allocate the commercial harvest solely to personal use.
Right now in the Juneau area, more than 60% of the harvest goes to personal use, and 40% goes to commercial permit holders. However, if there is not enough crab for a commercial opening, that portion stays in the water.
The Juneau proposal states that demand for personal use in the area is growing; it aims to protect the red king crab stock around Juneau from the commercial fishery, pointing to reductions for personal use and years of closures that followed commercial openings.
The proposal would revoke the commercial allocation and direct 100% to personal use — harvesting 70% in summer and 30% in the fall and winter.
If the proposal goes through, it means red king crab in the Juneau area would be off-limits for all commercial pots.
“There’s a lot of unknowns there, if that one passes. It would eliminate commercial fishing for red crab in the Juneau area,” said Messmer.
He said other factors for managing the fishery will need to be reconsidered if the proposal gets passed by the board.
“We’re going to make the board aware that, you know, if this passes that … there’s other regulations that possibly might need to be changed,” Messmer said.
Although the proposal wants to stop commercial red king crabbing around Juneau, it says it does not aim to shut down the commercial fishery for the region — noting commercial harvest can still happen in the other areas if crab populations meet the threshold.
According to state surveys, Southeast’s red king crab stock is poor, and has been for years. Data from 2024 shows that a quarter of the region’s red king crab population resides in the Juneau area. It’s also the only area with above-average stock.
As it stands, Messmer said removing the Juneau area’s stock from the equation reduces the likelihood of meeting the threshold that’s currently required to open the commercial fishery in Southeast, which means it may be more difficult for a regional commercial opener to happen.
“We might have to modify the 200 pound threshold,” he said. “But that’s something that we’ll have to talk about at the board meeting.”
Messmer said officials would need to look back on how much of Juneau’s crab stock contributed to that threshold over the years if they consider changing it. But he said recalculations would be difficult to do because those population trends change.
Local Fish and Game advisory committees in Petersburg, Wrangell and Sitka support the department’s proposal to allow for a biologically-managed, small commercial fishery for red king crab.
The Juneau-Douglas advisory committee voted in support of the proposal to eliminate commercial red king crabbing in the Juneau area; Sitka took no action, and Petersburg and Wrangell opposed it.
The Board of Fisheries will meet in Ketchikan from Jan. 28–Feb. 9 to consider more than 100 different proposals for the region.