A big cutback for Kodiak crab

The state has set a catch quota of 560,000 pounds for the Kodiak District Tanner crab fishery set to open at noon Jan. 15.

That's a big reduction from the 3 million pounds allowed last season.

Kodiak crab quota is out!

The state just announced a Kodiak Tanner crab quota of 3 million pounds, down considerably from last season's strong 5.8 million pounds.

Still holding out in Kodiak

Here's an update on the Kodiak crab strike from KMXT news director Kirsten Dobroth.

Feeling hopeful, and crabby, in Kodiak

Unless delayed by weather, the Kodiak commercial Tanner crab season will open at noon tomorrow, and the harvest could be the biggest in many years.

But word out of Kodiak is that crabbers want higher prices than processors are offering, so the fleet might strike.

The Kodiak District Tanner crab quota is 5.8 million pounds, more than five times last season's quota. Kodiak hasn't seen a harvest this large since the nearly 9 million pounds taken in 1986.

Far larger harvests came in the 1970s, when the Kodiak District twice produced seasonal catches in excess of 30 million pounds.

As for price negotiations, one crabber a couple of days ago wrote Deckboss: "Kodiak fishermen are asking $5 a pound. The processors are not budging and are still at $2.50. Options are being explored to tender the crab west where the starting price is $3.70."

Big crab news for Kodiak

Alaska crab news has been pretty depressing lately. Now comes something brighter.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game today announced a Tanner crab quota of 5.8 million pounds for Kodiak. That's a huge jump from last season's 1.1 million pounds.

Pass the drawn butter!

King crab down, snow crab up

Fishery managers have announced a total allowable catch of 2.6 million pounds for the Bristol Bay red king crab season opening Oct. 15. That's a very poor quota, down 30 percent from last season.

Managers also have announced a TAC of 45 million pounds for the Bering Sea snow crab fishery, a 32 percent increase.

The Bering Sea Tanner crab TAC is 2.3 million pounds. The Tanner crab fishery was closed last season.

Slim pickings for king crab

Fishery managers today announced a total allowable catch of 3.8 million pounds for the Bristol Bay red king crab fishery, which opens at noon Oct. 15. That's a 12 percent cut from last season.

Managers also announced a TAC of 34 million pounds for the Bering Sea snow crab fishery, a 23 percent increase.

The Bering Sea Tanner crab fishery will remain closed, as the estimated mature male biomass is too low, managers said. Last season's Tanner crab TAC was 2.4 million pounds.

Tanners today

Kodiak's little Tanner crab fishery is scheduled to begin at noon today.

The fishery has an unusual wrinkle this year, what with Shell's recently rescued offshore drilling rig, the Kulluk, anchored up in Kiliuda Bay on Kodiak's eastern side.

Nothing has spilled from the rig, but state and Coast Guard officials are being extra cautious to make sure the Kulluk and various response vessels don't cause a problem for the crabbers.

Hence, the hulking rig will stay put in inner Kiliuda Bay for the duration of the fishery.

Furthermore...

"A claims process has been established for any crab fishermen losses that occur as a result of the Kulluk's presence," says this update from the unified command set up to deal with the Kulluk grounding and salvage operation.

The catch quota for Tanner crab is a modest 660,000 pounds for the Kodiak District.

Trawlers win!

That's right, trawlers win. But Kodiak crab stocks might be winners, too.

That's my assessment of today's action at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting in downtown Anchorage.

On a 9-2 vote, the council passed a plan to minimize the bycatch of bairdi Tanner crabs off the east coast of Kodiak Island.

The council considered simply closing large blocks of water to trawlers, particularly those using bottom-dragging nets that can accidentally catch and kill crab while in pursuit of groundfish.

But for the most part, the trawlers escaped that fate. Instead, the council gave the trawlers a way to keep fishing in most of waters proposed for closure. They can do this by modifying their trawl gear to have less impact on crabs.

These "trawl sweep modifications" reportedly have worked to reduce crab bycatch mortality in the Bering Sea.

Kodiak's trawl fleet as well as the island's major processors all pushed for the modified gear approach, rather than simply booting boats out of crabby areas.

Here's how council members voted on the final motion:

Voting yes
Jim Balsiger, Dave Benson, Cora Campbell, Sam Cotten, John Henderschedt, Dan Hull, Roy Hyder, Eric Olson (chairman), Bill Tweit

Voting no
Ed Dersham, Duncan Fields

Scandalous crab bycatch exposed?

Bairdi, bagged and broken. Photo courtesy Alexus Kwachka

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council has been meeting all week in Anchorage, but Deckboss didn't bother to attend the first few days. Frankly, the agenda looked kinda boring.

This afternoon, however, I decided to make at least a brief appearance.

And wouldn't you know, the action in the council chamber suddenly livened up only moments after your correspondent walked in.

A fisherman, Alexus Kwachka, was among several people testifying about the problem of the growing incidental capture — that's bycatch, in industry parlance — of bairdi Tanner crab in trawl nets dragging for groundfish around Kodiak.

Now, it's old sport down at the council for the guys who fish with pots and hooks to criticize the guys who fish with yawning trawl nets that often drag the ocean floor.

But Kwachka had more than just talk. He brought a series of rather startling photos depicting big mounds of Tanner crab bycatch on the deck of an unidentified trawler.

The pictures were said to have been taken this past summer. I've posted one here showing a multitude of Tanners mixed in with various fish.

To Kwachka and others, the pictures show why the council needs to take swift action to boot trawlers out of the crab grounds so Tanner stocks can complete an apparent revival and provide good income for small-scale fishermen.

A big problem is that Gulf trawlers most of the time carry no federal fishery observer to document the level of bycatch, say activists with the Alaska Marine Conservation Council.

Now I'm just guessing, but I wouldn't expect the trawl industry to concede that these pictures are anything more than anecdotal.

But dang, they really are troubling images, all those half-mangled crab hauled up as waste.

It'll be interesting to see how the council handles this.