With the fishing season starting next week, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has released crab quotas for Bristol Bay and the Bering Sea.
The total allowable catch for red king crab is 3.8 million pounds. That's about 12 percent less than last season, as well as the lowest since the fishery's rationalization in 2005.
Meanwhile, the tanner crab fishery has been closed entirely due to below-threshold estimates of mature males.
Managers have also canceled the St. Matthew Island blue king crab fishery, which has been declared "overfished" — and continued the longtime closures for Pribilof Island red and blue king crab, which have fallen below federal minimums for two decades.
This season, snow crab is the only species to see a quota increase. Fishermen are allowed to catch 34 million pounds, which is about 24 percent more than last winter.
While opilio is up, biologists have said many crab populations are declining as a result of hard-to-pinpoint environmental factors, including warming water temperatures and bycatch issues.
"It's hard to determine exactly what the trigger — or combination of triggers — is," said ADFG management biologist Miranda Westphal, speaking about red king crab in October of 2018. "We believe it's probably a combination of environmental factors."
Department officials will review this season's stock assessments and quotas at a public meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 9. It starts at 9 a.m. at Unalaska City Hall. You can also join by teleconference at 1-800-315-6338, using access code 4861842.
Crab fishing opens next Tuesday, Oct. 15 at noon.
