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To avoid future quota cuts and to protect the crab resource, Bering Sea crabbers signed pledges to retain all legal king crab this year, and reports are they have honored that agreement, said Arni Thomson, executive director of the Alaska Crab Coalition.
Last year the total allowable catch was 16,496,000 pounds of red king crab. State fisheries officials responded to heated criticism on the number of legal crab discarded in the 2005 season because of their shell condition, and deducted nearly 4.6 percent off the top of the 2006 catch quota. Thomson estimated that cost the crabbers $3.5 million at the docks. The fishery itself is valued at $55 million, Thomson said.
“It is our intention to look at that issue on an annual basis,” said Forrest Bowers, the state's area management biologist for shellfish in Dutch Harbor. “We will look at the data from the 2006-07 fishery, in conjunction with the survey data we receive this summer (of 2007) and make a determination at that time. We will only make a reduction (in the harvest quota) if we feel it is warranted.”
Although crabbers with individual fishing quotas have already harvested 99 percent of their total allowable catch of just less than 14 million pounds of red king crab, analysis of data collected by observers on board crab boats won't begin until mid-January, Bowers said.
“We are still gathering the data, but early indications are that we've seen a big turn-around and that's all for the better,” said Denby Lloyd, director of the state commercial fisheries division.
Many crabbers formerly engaged in the practice of discarding a large number of legal crab because of poor shell conditions, a practice called high-grading. Crab buyers pay lower prices for crab with darkened or barnacle-covered shells.
Thomson said the crabbers also got a break this year by there being far less old-shell crab on the grounds. That number was estimated at just 16 percent of the legal male population, compared to more than 40 percent a year ago, Thomson said. “The fact that nearly all processors agreed to pay a single price for all crab also reduced the incentive to high-grade,” Thomson said.
Steve Minor, chairman of the Pacific Northwest Crab Industry Advisory committee, said crabbers, crab cooperative managers and processors deserved credit.
“The industry has seen an almost quadrupling of imports of Russian king crab in just two years,” Minor said. “That has collapsed the markets, while at the same time, fuel prices have gone through the roof. Despite that, they all said we are in this for the long term and we have to put an end to this high-grading problem.”
Crabbers developed an improved retention program prior to the mid-October start of the fishery.
“It includes increased soak times to allow for more small crab to escape from pots, improved communications by the fleet telling which areas to avoid, and increased education of deckhands to reduce handling mortality,” Thomson said.
Historically, the fleet has retained up to 98 percent of legal male king crab, he said. “By taking decisive, corrective action, the crabbing community hopes to see a return to these levels.”
The fleet, meanwhile, continued to diminish, with just 81 vessels participating this year, down from 89 a year ago, Bowers said.
Before the federal crab rationalization went into effect, more than 200 vessels participated in the fishery. Many fishermen have complained about a loss of jobs, not only for themselves, but for other businesses in the coastal communities. Crab rationalization allowed harvesters to lease out quota shares, so that fewer vessels participated in the fishery. Crab rationalization made it more practical for vessel owners to stack several crab quotas onto a single vessel, since with quotas assured they could take more time harvesting.
Fewer boats fishing meant fewer jobs for skippers and crews, fewer supplies purchased and fewer vessels needing maintenance and repair, all of which have affected the coastal economies, fishermen said.
The industry has also been hit with a flood of imported from king crab caught in Russian waters, which are being marketed nationally at lower prices than Alaska-caught king crab.
Bowers also noted that the harvest appears more temporally compressed, with most of the harvest completed by mid-November. Last year most harvests were concluded by mid-December.
The fishery opens on Oct. 15. In the old days of the race for fish, with dozens of vessels vying to catch all the crab they could before the allowable harvest was reached and the fishery ended, the season sometimes lasted only several days.
Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.
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