SEAFOODNEWS.COM — by John Sackton Oct 14, 2014 — The Bering Sea 2014-15 crab season opens tomorrow, and Alaskan crab quotas across all species are up by an additional 28.37 million pounds.
ADF&G returned a higher quota on every crab specie surveyed by NMFS this year.
King crab is up 16%, Snow crab is up 26%, and Bairdi or Tanner crab is up between 300% and 500%, and a fishery is again open on St. Matthews Blue king crab that was closed last year.
Thee quota increases are consistent with surveys, which showed a surge in crab biomass across all species.
The issue for the scientists was whether the higher biomass seem was due to movement of crab into the survey area, or whether it was a true picture of the population increase.
The water temperatures in parts of the survey area were 2 degeees C. warmer than last year. Crab generally perfer colder waters, and will move to an area of colder water if they have to. However this year, the ADF&G conclusions are that the population increases are real.
The Bering Sea crabbers, whose members have the fishing quotas on crab, welcomed the news of the increased quota, as evidence of the success of science based management with stakeholder input.
However, the crabbers also remain concerned about Russian king crab, which they claim still has a significant IUU component, and which distorts the global crab market. As a result the Bering Sea Crabbers still strongly support a boycott or ban on Russian seafood products, which they believe would have the side benefit of denying entry to illegal crab.
Despite this concern the increase in Russian imports this year can also be explained by a strong dollar and a weak yen, and the fact the US market can outbid the Japanese. Russia legal landings are currently at the highest level in many years, and it is not clear to others that the IUU problem remains as great an issue as before.
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.