4/20/2023 0 Comments Did the time bandit sell![]() ![]() Specifically, the number of young or small crabs has been low for years and the reason why is more of a mystery. In contrast, the Bristol Bay red king crabs have been in steady decline for years. “But if you’re trying to pay off a boat loan or keep a team employed, five years is a really long time.” “There are some signs of another wave of really small crabs coming into the survey, and so looking out four to five years from now, those crabs, if they survive, would be coming into the fishery. Snow crabs are coldwater animals, explained Litzow, and “they’re sensitive to the loss of sea ice and really warm temperatures.” The Bering Sea water temperatures were much warmer than average in 20, contributing to low sea-ice cover levels. It’s not entirely clear not what happened to all the snow crabs, but climate change is thought to be a big contributor. This year’s survey only confirmed that, resulting in the closure of the snow crab season for the first time. But with so few smaller crabs around, the outlook for 2022 was grim. There were just enough adult crabs to meet the regulatory threshold to keep the commercial crabbing season open. “Then in 2021, we went out, and there was just nothing,” said Litzow. ![]() “There was a lot of hope and anticipation” that this would translate to more commercial fishing in the area for years to come, he added.īut the 2019 survey revealed a much reduced population of small crabs, and the 2020 survey was nixed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. “We were looking at the largest amount of small crab” - i.e., young crabs - “in the water that we’ve ever seen in the survey,” said Ethan Nichols, assistant area management biologist at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. ![]() Let’s start with the Bering Sea snow crabs, which have declined by “multiple billions” over just a few years, according to Litzow.īack in 2018, the NOAA-run annual survey revealed the population was booming. The Alaskan crab crisis is complicated, in part because the situations for the two different crab populations are quite different. The trade association represents about 60 vessels and 350 fishermen. The Alaskan commercial crabbing fleet “is bracing for half a billion dollars in losses going into the second year of stock collapse,” the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers trade association said in a press release, plus more ripple-effect losses in revenue to processors, support businesses and communities. State officials also announced the cancellation of the Bristol Bay red king crab season for the second year in a row because of consistently low crab numbers. ![]() Commercial landings last year of Alaska snow crab alone came to 44 million pounds and $219 million, according to NOAA data. The decision to cancel, announced by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on October 10, came as a devastating blow for local fisheries in a state where the seafood industry is an economic cornerstone. (Snow crabs are also found in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas off Alaska.) “We’re still trying to figure it out, but certainly there’s very clear signs of the role of climate change in the collapse,” said Michael Litzow, shellfish assessment program manager at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which runs an annual survey of Bering Sea snow crab numbers. ![]()
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