1. Focus on Bristol Bay Red King Crab
and
Bering Sea Snow Crab

2. Citation
 Fitch, H., M. Schwenzfeier, B. Baechler, T.
Hartill, M. Salmon, M. Deiman, E. Evans, E.
Henry, L. Wald, J. Shaishnikoff, K.
Herring, and J. Wilson. 2012. Annual
management report for the commercial and
subsistence shellfish fisheries of the Aleutian
Islands, Bering Sea and the Westward
Region’s shellfish observer program, 2010/11.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Fishery
Management Report No. 1222, Anchorage.

3. Bristol Bay Red King Crab
History
BBRKC
 First harvest 1930 Japanese Fleet in Eastern
Bering Sea (EBS)
 Break in fishing by Japanese from 1940-1953
 Japanese fleet 1953-1974
 Russian fleet 1959-1971

4. BBRKC History
• U.S. trawl fleet began fishing in 1947
• Low harvest in late 50s
• No U.S. harvest reported in 1959
• Participation increased from 1966-1980
• Does not mention if trawl or pot fishing

5. BBRKC History
 1980 Board of Fisheries (BOF) defines Bristol
Bay Crab fishery area, area T
 Makes area T exclusive
 Exclusive area limits ability to participate in
other areas
 1980 record king crab harvest 129.9 million
pounds

6. BBRKC History
• 1981 BBRKC stocks “decline sharply”
• Fishery closed in 1983, 1994 and 1995
• Participation increases again from 1984
• 89 vessels fishing approximately 22,000 pots
• 1991 -- 300 vessels fishing 90,000 pots
• 1988 onboard observer program instituted for catcher
processors and floating processors

7. BBRKC History
• 1992 BOF institutes 250 pot limit per vessel
• National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
suspends pot limit due to inconsistencies
• 1993 vessels greater than 125 feet allowed 250
pots
• Vessels 125 feet or less in length allowed 200
pots.
• 1993 I work as observer on Northern Enterprise
catcher processor

8. Crab Rationalization
• 2005/2006 season was first with Crab rationalization (CR)
• CR divided harvest into shares for boat owners and boat
captains
• Also guaranteed processors a processing share
• The three pie system
• Shares are transferrable

9. What I remember
• I worked as an observer for the 1993 Red King
Crab season in Bristol Bay
• I was on Northern Enterprise the catcher
processor
• It was an Olympic style fishery
• Catch as much as you can as fast as you can

10. 1993
• As an observer I measured crab for
biological measurement and legal
measurement
• I identified and enumerated by-catch
• Count, measure and identify ever
thing in six pots per day
• Report harvest to Dutch Harbor
by coded radio message daily

11. 1993
 Given code to describe treatment by crew
 Season lasted about 7 days

12. How it worked
• Boat leaves Dutch Harbor to fishing grounds
• Bait and set pots
• Pots set individually in strings
• As opposed to long-lined
• Pots fished in 30-60 fathoms
• Pots soaked for hours then retrieved
• If fishing good pots returned otherwise
stacked and moved

13. How it worked
• Crab dumped from pot to sorting table
• Legal crab kept small or female crab returned to
water.
• Legal crab sent to processing hopper
• Processing crew butchers and brushes crab
• Packs into cooking crates
• Cooks, cools, chills,
glazes, boxes and freezes

14. Snow Crab History
• Started in 1977 harvest incidental
in bairdi fishery
• Harvest was modest through 1985
• Harvest increased until 1991 peak
of 328.6 million pounds
• Harvest decreased dramatically to
65.7 million pounds by 1996

15. Snow Crab History
• Harvest average 163.6 million pounds between 1997 and
1999
• In 2000 BOF adopted a stepped harvest rate
• 2005 the first season under crab rationalization