I suspect that allowing and encouraging a large take of seals, sea otter, octopi and the fish species that predate on king crabs would help their population greatly.

Keith

Yeah, marine mammals and commercial halibut are managed by da Feds. There are plenty of seal, sea lion, sea otter, and whale around. Indigenous people can harvest federally managed marine mammals, not me.

Sucks to be a fisherman. Our salmon fishery has been shut down two years in a row now, and looks like I wont be fishing again before I retire.

Our salmon were selling for $85 a lb the last time they sold any Kings.

We have moved on haven't you heard? Now we pick on PF for engaging the PTO on his manure spreader while in a tree stand!

Just the start of things to come, natural resources dwindle as increased in population, pollution, overuse continue. Many of the resources are non renewable and the carrying capacity of the world will be reached sooner as population grows and technology will not save us.

Google Kodiak king crab fishery. It died before I lived there 30 years ago.

P.S. Sport Halibut is also managed by the Feds.

BTW "16 Alaska fisheries qualify for NOAA disaster relief"

Maybe not Deadliest Catch, but you can watch Sig on his new show, "The Viking returns" , apparently he's moving an operation to northern Norway....

As for fish and game depts, any of them, anywhere, can screw up EVERYTHING they touch.......

Record Bristol Bay sockeye runs may be hurting crab populations:

https://craigmedred.news/2022/10/13/predator-vs-prey/

Larvae of the crustaceans that comprise the order Decapoda – crabs, shrimp, prawns and lobsters – are well-known prey for young salmon.

Scientists studying sockeye in the nearshore waters of Kodiak in the Gulf of Alaska in 2001 reported that the “dominant prey of sockeye salmon (there) were decapod larvae.”

There are, however, great variations in what juvenile salmon prey on in the North Pacific Ocean from region to region and year to year, and nobody knows exactly the relationship between crab larvae and sockeye smolt in the Bering Sea at the moment.

Still, scientists from the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle who looked specifically at the possible influences of juvenile sockeye on crab populations way back in 1994 concluded that even low levels of crab consumption by juvenile sockeye could prove a factor in crab declines.

A predator-prey model they built indicated that if crab “zoea (the larval form of crustaceans) were estimated to comprise 1 percent of the diet and were available to the juvenile sockeye salmon for 30 days..the results of the bioenergetic model indicate that smolt-induced mortality can be
large at high levels of juvenile abundance and low levels of zoea crab.”

“At high and average levels of sockeye and average zoea abundance,” they wrote, “the impact is not great at a 1 percent consumption rate. However, increasing the consumption rate a few percent at this level could reduce survival and subsequent” survival rates for young crab.

Today, sockeye levels in the Bering Sea are best described as above high and zoea abundance below low.
Larvae of the crustaceans

Doesn't the bering sea crab fisheries target male crabs?, ...something doesnt add up

I have a commercial crab and gillnet license in Maryland , and dabble in blue crabs, menhaden and striped bass fishery for part time income. The state and feds are constantly opening and closing seasons. Changing dates, size limits, landing limits. There is a lot of controversy about believing the number the state surveys come up with , as far as population estimates.

My question for you Alaskans with some skin in the game. Do you believe the population estimates are accurate? Are most captains concerned for the resource/future of the fishery or do they just want to untie the boat and go set pots? Is there a big divide between the captains/crews and the officials making these decisions ( state department of fishery I assume )?

This is a shame , I know it’s got to be devastating to some, and hopefully financial compensation will be paid by those who shut down the fishery. Sounds like the state mismanaged the numbers in the previous years, and maybe should have cut back quota a little at a time to adjust, rather than a screeching halt like this.

Segment on national news tonight about this, coverage was actually worth watching.

Alaska snow crab season canceled after an estimated 1 billion crabs disappear.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a...mp;cvid=ccc26fed97dc45d6b1586c03614b1955

They harvest large male crabs, the rest in the pot is bycatch.

FWIW the Japanese snow crab shown in the picture are females. Alaska fisheries mandate only male retention as far as I know. Lame article but about what to be expected from that source.

Not much is good for us anymore.

Here's a little better article. Red King Crab and Opilio (snow crab) closed. Small tanner crab fishery to be allowed:

https://radiokenai.com/alaskas-bering-snow-crab-king-crab-seasons-canceled/

SEATTLE (AP) — Alaska officials have canceled the fall Bristol Bay red king crab harvest, and for the first time, have also scrapped the winter harvest of smaller snow crab.



The move is a double whammy to a fleet from Alaska, Washington and Oregon chasing Bering Sea crab in harvests that in 2016 grossed $280 million, The Seattle Times reported.



The closures reflect conservation concerns about both crab species following bleak summer populations surveys. The decisions to shut down the snow crab and fall king crab harvests came after days of discussions by Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists and senior agency officials who faced crabbers’ pleas for at least small fisheries.



“I am struggling for words. This is so unbelievable that this is happening,” said Jamie Goen, executive director of the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, adding that some crabbers will go out of business.



“Management of Bering Sea snow crab must now focus on conservation and rebuilding given the conditions of the stock,” the department said in a Monday statement.



Snow crab populations declined after a 2019 Bering Sea warming that scrambled the broader marine ecosystem. Last year’s snow crab harvest of 5.6 million pounds was the smallest in over 40 years.



The causes of the snow crab population collapse are still being researched but likely include increased predation and stresses from the warmer water.



Alaska, within the limits of a federal management plan that comes up with an allowable biological catch, determines how many crab are caught.



A scientific model of the snow crab population reviewed by the federal North Pacific Fishery Management Council last week indicated there may have been enough this year for another small harvest. However, Ben Daly, an Alaska Department of Fish and Game research coordinator, said the model has struggled to account for the dramatic population decline after the 2019 warming, and state officials were concerned it might not be accurate.



“We have extreme conservation concerns about the population. We have serious doubts about the model,” Daly said.



The fall red king crab harvest was canceled for the second year running because of the low number of mature female crabs, which are an indicator of the broader health of a stock that has been in long-term decline. The survey needs to find at least 8.4 million mature females to OK a harvest, and the 2022 survey, though it showed improvement from 2021, still fell below that level, according to Daly.



Fisheries that accidentally catch Bristol Bay king and snow crab will continue at this point without new restrictions.



The Alaska Department of Fish and Game also announced on Monday that a small Bering Sea crab harvest of more than 2 million pounds of tanner crab will open Oct. 16.

Here is a look at a crash of Kodiak Red King Crab. Blames over harvest of males. Makes sense; takes 2 to tango....:

The Kodiak stock of red king crab declined following a period of high harvest rates in the late 1960s that skewed sex ratios and compromised reproductive potential. Then in the late 1970s, it appears that predation on crab may have increased, possibly due to increased Pacific cod biomass

https://seagrant.uaf.edu/research/projects/summary.php?id=806

how much did the Bering sea "warm up"

My guess, and I have no skin in that game, is they are basing numbers on emotion, not facts.

The facts are the catch went from I think 55 million pounds to less than 6million pounds that's not emotion. The boats were trying to catch what was not there.