June 3, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — NOAA is partnering with non-profit group the Bering Sea Fisheries Research Foundation to learn more about Bristol Bay red king crab stocks.

The government organization announced this week that through their new partnership they will be researching how “recent environmental variability drives crab seasonal movements, habitat use, and interactions with groundfish trawl fisheries.” To conduct the research, NOAA and the Bering Sea Fisheries Research Foundation will be utilizing an unmanned surface drone (Saildrone, Inc.) to track the movements of adult red king crabs in Bristol Bay.

“So little is known about where crabs are and how they move,” explained Scott Goodman of the Bering Sea Fisheries Research Foundation. “We have only snapshots from summer surveys. This research will fill in the life history gaps to better inform the management of red king crab as both target and bycatch.”

The NOAA Kodiak Laboratory has already been placing trial tags on female red king crabs, but will begin working with fishermen this June to tag male red king crabs. The tags feature acoustic devices that transmit an ID number, as well as the bottom temperature. Once the crabs are tagged, the saildrone will be deployed in October 2019 to relocate the tagged crabs, and then again in April 2020.

According to NOAA Fisheries scientist Leah Zacher, who is leading the project, relocating the crabs in the fall will help provide information on “how crabs move onto the fishing grounds. Meanwhile, the spring tag relocation will help to “determine the locations where they are vulnerable to being caught as bycatch in trawl fisheries.”

NOAA will begin posting reports from the field beginning this June. You can follow the research on the Alaska Fisheries Science Center Science Blog here.

This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.