Alaska officials have canceled the fall Bristol Bay red king crab harvest, and in a first-ever move also scuttled the winter harvest of smaller Bering Sea snow crab. Via The Seattle Times
The Paragon and Kari Marie fish for snow crab on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022 in the Bering Sea southwest of St. Matthew Island.
“I am struggling for words. This is so unbelievable that this is happening,” said Jamie Goen, executive director of the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers. “We have third-generation fishermen who are going to go out of business.” Snow crab populations collapsed in the aftermath of a 2019 Bering Sea warming that scrambled the broader marine ecosystem, and last year’s snow crab harvest of 5.6 million pounds was the smallest in more than 40 years.Scientists are still researching the causes of the snow crab population collapse, which likely include increased predation as well as stresses from the warmer water that caused crabs’ metabolisms to increase and could have led to starvation.
“We have extreme conservation concerns about the population. We have serious doubts about the model,” Daly said. These include pot fisheries targeting cod and bottom trawlers that net yellowfin sole and other fish. Chris Woodley, executive director of the Groundfish Forum that represents the trawl fleet that pursues yellowfin sole, said operators have modified nets to reduce impacts, and this past year faced new area restrictions as well as a reduction in the number of crab that can brought up in the nets as bycatch.
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