Results from this year's Eastern Bering Sea
bottom trawl survey suggest we could see substantial quota reductions in Alaska's two most valuable crab fisheries.
Bristol Bay red king crab
The biomass estimate for legal-sized male crab is 22,424 tons, down 17.6 percent from last year's estimate of 27,209 tons. (See Table 6 on Page 31 of the survey report.)
Bering Sea snow crab
The biomass estimate for legal males is 51,670 tons, down 27.8 percent from last year's 71,550 tons. (Table 19, Page 44)
Fishery managers will announce catch limits in the coming weeks. The crab fisheries open Oct. 15.