Red king crab, bairdi surge while snow crab dips

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game today announced Bering Sea crab harvest quotas for the 2026-27 season.

The Bristol Bay red king crab quota is 3.41 million pounds, a 27 percent increase from last season.

The Bering Sea snow crab quota is 5.1 million pounds, down 45 percent.

The Bering Sea bairdi Tanner crab quota is 32.1 million pounds, a 185 percent increase.

The season opens at noon Oct. 15, with the fleet expected to concentrate on red king crab first.

Northwest oil threat?

A proposed Canadian pipeline could "bring a massive expansion in both the volume of crude oil and the number of tankers transiting the Salish Sea," Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson and Ecology Director Casey Sixkiller say in a joint statement.

'History of Terminal 91'

Read it here.

USCG reports Southeast sinking, helicopter rescue

Details and a video here.

Board, council to talk trawl next month

A joint committee of the Alaska Board of Fisheries and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council is set to meet Oct. 16 to discuss a range of trawl topics. Details in this notice.

Dump those halibut, or donate?

The National Marine Fisheries Service has received an application for a special permit to allow a factory trawler, the Northern Glacier, to donate some halibut bycatch to a hunger relief organization rather than return the fish to the sea as required by regulation.

A warship in Whittier

The USS Ted Stevens (DDG 128) arrives in Whittier ahead of its commissioning ceremony set for noon Saturday. Named for the late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer "will be the Navy's newest and most formidable instrument of global power projection," a media advisory says. The commissioning ceremony will live stream here. U.S. Navy photo by Senior Airman Raina Dale