Thursday October 17, 2024
Alaska Beacon —
After a two-year hiatus forced by low stocks, the Bering Sea snow crab harvest is back on.
The decision to reopen the harvest, announced on Oct. 4 by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, is based on signs of recovery in the crab populations. The official harvest opening was Tuesday.
Signs of recovery are modest, and so is the allowable catch. The harvest is limited to 4.72 million pounds, a level that is a far cry from the 45-million-pound quota used in the 2020-21 season and similarly large quotas in earlier years.
This season’s total allowable catch is the smallest in the history of the fishery, said Mark Stichert, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Kodiak-based management coordinator for groundfish and shellfish harvests.
The department sets catch limits based on information gleaned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service.