Saving Seafood

New tool could predict ocean acidity in Bering Sea

August 10, 2026 — Crab populations in the Bering Sea are struggling. And researchers say climate change is a big cause. A new tool described in a study published Aug. 3 in the Journal of Geophysical Research Oceans will help researchers predict one of climate change’s biggest threats to crabs: ocean acidity. The study’s authors hope their work can help crabbers and fishery managers.

“I’m excited with this new model and study,” said Jamie Goen, the executive director of the nonprofit trade association Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers. “It will help us better understand what could be happening and how that might impact fisheries.”

Darren Pilcher, the study’s lead author and an oceanographer at the University of Washington, said he started the study because of requests from fisheries stakeholders.

The ocean absorbs a quarter of our carbon emissions, which make the water more acidic when the two mix. Acidic conditions are harmful for many different animals. This is especially true for shellfish, like crabs.

“They can eat more, and that helps a little bit, only to a certain point,” Pilcher said. “In fact, in some of the previous experiments with red king crab, if you lower the pH to a value of 7.5, the crab just die.”

Scientists have pointed to factors from climate change, like ocean acidification, as the reason the number of Bristol Bay red king crabs has plummeted in recent years. Goen said that other species, like snow crab, have also tanked.

Read the full article at KMXT

Appeals Court Says Fishermen’s Claim in Lobster Defamation Suit Raises First Amendment Questions

August 5, 2026 — A federal appeals court signaled that it might not allow a lawsuit brought by fishing industry businesses and trade groups against a California aquarium to proceed because of the case’s potential impact on free speech.

The New England-based plaintiffs sued the Monterey Bay Aquarium for defamation after the aquarium’s Seafood Watch conservation program placed American and Canadian lobster on its do-not-eat “red list” in 2022. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is deciding whether the lawsuit can go forward.

One of the appellate judges, Judge Seth Aframe, said during oral arguments on July 27 that it doesn’t strike him as a defamation claim and that he finds the case troubling “from a First Amendment perspective.”

“The more you broaden the class of people that fall within this, the more it feels like everybody can sue,” Aframe said.

Seafood Watch placed lobster on its list of seafood to avoid because of the threat posed to rare whales, such as the North Atlantic right whale, by potential entanglement in fishing gear.

The lobster fishing industry, based mostly in Maine, has pushed back, saying the claim inaccurately portrays it as a threat to whales and constitutes defamation that has caused economic harm. It claims that the whales face greater threats from other fishing industries, including the Canadian snow crab fishery.

Conservation groups have long made the case that lobster and crab fisheries are both dangerous to the whales, and government agencies have acknowledged that entanglement in fishing gear is a critical threat to the giant animals.

The industry is sticking to that claim despite the judges’ comments during oral arguments, Kevin Lipson, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said Wednesday.

“Monterey Bay Aquarium in their Seafood Watch report didn’t disclose any of the countervailing evidence. In fact, they hid that evidence,” Lipson said.

Read the full article at U.S. News

Bering Sea heat wave cited as trigger for nosedive in Yukon River Chinook salmon

July 13, 2026 — The intense marine heat wave conditions that began roiling the Bering Sea in about 2016 resulted in the lowest winter sea ice extent measured in 150 years, widespread bird and marine mammal die-offs, a drastic shift in fish populations and a crash of snow crab stocks.

Now new research is tying the marine heat wave to the recent collapse of Yukon River Chinook salmon.

A study published in April, written by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center and University of Alaska Fairbanks, showed the correlation between the extreme heat wave conditions and the nosedive in Yukon River Chinook stocks. The heat wave was accompanied by a dramatic increase in deaths of older juvenile and adult Chinook that, had they survived, would have returned from the ocean to freshwater spawning grounds, the study found.

The study was published in the journal Ecological Applications.

The Yukon River’s runs of Chinook, also called king salmon, have been in a long-term decline since their past heyday, when they numbered in the hundreds of thousands and the river was one of the biggest sources of that salmon species.

The sharp downturn in recent years resulted in a 2022 return that was the lowest on record. Widespread fishery closures have been in effect for years along the Yukon River system in both Alaska and Canada.

Read the full article at Alaska Beacon

ALASKA: Feds sending $99 million in aid to address three declared Alaska fishery disasters

June 19, 2026 — Alaska has been allocated about $99 million in new fishery disaster assistance, making up the majority of the $123.6 million in aid that federal officials on Wednesday said is headed to Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California.

In Alaska, the money is to address previously declared fishery disasters for Bering Sea snow crab and Chignik and Cook Inlet salmon harvests, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fishery service said.

For the lost snow crab harvest of the 2023-24 winter, the second year that the usually lucrative fishery was canceled because of low stocks, NOAA Fisheries is allocating $75.2 million in aid. That follows a 2024 allocation of $39.5 million in aid for the lost harvest in the winter of 2022-23.

Snow crab harvests have now resumed, though at much lower levels than in past years.

For the Chignik salmon disaster that occurred in 2022, the agency is allocating $18.5 million in aid. For the declared disaster for the 2023 Upper Cook Inlet east side setnet salmon harvest, the agency said it is allocating $5.8 million in aid.

Read the full article at the Alaska Beacon

Research finds crab pot escape hatch could boost snow crab sustainability

December 10, 2025 –A team of researchers working in the Barents Sea found a simple “escape hatch” modification to snow crab pots could have big benefits for the fishery’s sustainability and efficiency.

The research, lead by Heriot-Watt University and UiT The Arctic University of Norway found adding circular “escape gaps” to traditional crab pots used in the snow crab fishery allowed smaller crabs to escape the gear before it was retrieved by fishing vessels.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Alaska seeks more federal financial relief for Bering Sea snow crab fishery

December 9, 2025 — The U.S. state of Alaska has asked the U.S. Department of Commerce to issue a fishery disaster determination for the 2024/2025 Bering Sea snow crab season, which despite reopening after two years of closure, remains well below recent averages in terms of both harvest and revenue.

“The snow crab fishery has historically been the most productive crab fishery in the Bering Sea and supported one of the most valuable commercial fisheries in the Arctic,” Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy said in his letter, which noted that the fishery recorded gross revenue peaking at USD 219 million (EUR 188 million) in the 2020/2021 season.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Snow Crab Collapse Linked to Energetic Limitations During a Marine Heatwave

December 8, 2025 — A new study addresses one of the largest mass mortality events in recent marine history—the abrupt collapse of the snow crab population in the eastern Bering Sea. The research team was led by NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center fishery biologist Erin Fedewa. They set out to identify potential factors driving the increased mortality, population collapse, and recovery potential of Bering Sea snow crab.

Erin and her team measured snow crab energy reserves during and after the 2018–2019 marine heatwave and population collapse. This approach is the first of its kind for Bering Sea crab stocks. Findings show that warmer conditions and high population density led to energetic limitations—likely causing the snow crab population collapse.

A New, Rapid Energetic Condition Metric for Fisheries Management

Poor energetic condition is a state in which crabs have low energy reserves. This can increase starvation and mortality risk, emphasizing the importance of monitoring the energetic condition of individuals in marine populations. Techniques used to monitor energy reserves in fish often rely on data collected rapidly during annual scientific surveys, such as the weight-at-size of individual fish.

However, snow crabs have exoskeletons; they molt as juveniles, which uses a lot of their energy stores. They require more sensitive techniques to detect energy reserves beyond simple length-weight measurements. These techniques are often time-intensive and costly. Scientists have not routinely monitored energetic condition in Bering Sea crab populations to date.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

ALASKA: NPFMC poised to roll over halibut, crab bycatch limits for 2026/27 in December

November 26, 2025 — Each December the North Pacific Fishery Management Council sets the Total Allowable Catches (TACs) for all groundfish species in federal waters of the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska for two years. Those waters – from three to 200 miles out – provide over 60% of Alaska’s total fishery landings.

This massive range covers approximately 900,000 square miles and includes over 140 fish and crab species through six different Fishery Management Plans (FMPs).

The value of the combined groundfish fisheries tops $2 billion annually at first wholesale (the value after primary processing). Of that, nearly 75% leaves the state of Alaska and goes primarily to Seattle.

The North Pacific Council also sets the rates of bycatch that go along with all those groundfish catches.

Bering Sea trawl bycatch tops the allowed takes of snow crab and Tanner crab for fishermen

Crab bycatch numbers are indicated as individual animals by fishery managers, but to make things more confusing, crab catches by fishermen are listed in poundage.

For the 2025/2026 season, crabbers are allocated 2.68 million pounds of red king crab. That equals about 382,857 crabs based on an average weight of 7 pounds each. The allowable trawl bycatch for red king crab is 97,000 animals.

For Snow crab (opilio), the fishermen’s catch of 9.3 million pounds adds up to 6.2 million individual crabs weighing 1.5 pounds on average.

The allowable trawl bycatch for Snow crab is 12,850,000 animals.

For bairdi Tanner crab, the crabber’s pots can haul up a total of 11.25 million pounds – 10.12 million pounds from the Western district and 1.13 million pounds from the Eastern district. That equals 3.75 million crabs, based on an average weight of three pounds per crab.

The allowable trawl bycatch for bairdi Tanners is 3.95 million animals.

By far, most of the crab and halibut bycatch is taken by the Seattle-based Amendment 80 fleet of nearly 20 huge factory trawlers that drag the bottom of the Bering Sea for flounders and other groundfish.

Read the full article at Alaskafish.news

ALASKA: Alaska crabbers steer toward a stronger future

November 20, 2025 — Just a few years ago, Alaska’s crabbers were staring down one of the darkest chapters in their fishery’s history. The Bristol Bay red king crab, snow crab, and bairdi seasons had been closed or severely restricted, vessels sat idle at the docks, and the fleet that once helped define Alaska’s working waterfront was struggling to hold on.

But this year, as the Bering Sea fleet looks out over a brighter horizon, there’s cautious optimism that the tide is finally turning. “We’ve been through an epic storm these last few years,” said Jamie Goen, executive director of Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers (ABSC). “But Alaska’s Bering Sea crabbers are coming out the other side and are optimistic for the future.”

A remarkable comeback

Between 2019 and 2021, NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s bottom trawl survey estimated that roughly 10 billion snow crab disappeared. Now, in 2025, about 7 billion have returned, a rebound that Goen calls “one heck of a comeback.”

The turnaround wasn’t just by luck. It came through hard decisions and scientific collaboration. “When crab stocks tanked, managers tightened things up, cutting exploitation rates on red king and snow crab,” Goen explained. “At the time, it hurt. But looking back, it was the right call. Stocks are rebuilding, and we’ve learned to appreciate that extra precaution.”

Bristol Bay red king crab have stabilized, and snow and bairdi harvest levels have doubled, with western bairdi now at their strongest in more than 20 years. Meanwhile, a new mariculture project and coordinated habitat surveys are exploring how to boost red king crab recruitment and identify prime areas for releasing hatchery-reared juveniles.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman