Name: Alaskan Snow Crab Fishery Closed as Canada, Russia Report Bumper Harvests
Uploaded: 2025-01-04T20:45:46.000Z
Description: Alaskan crabbers and their communities are facing another difficult year after regulators announced that the East Bering Sea will be closed for the 2022 season to snow crab fishing.

NTD Newsroom comprises teams of reporters, editors, and producers assigned to cover breaking news and other stories.


NTD Newsroom

NTD Plus

News

News you can trust from the U.S. and around the world. Critical information and insight. We cover the stories that others don’t. NTD News Today airs Monday–Friday at 11 a.m. ET.

NTD News Today

Pentagon Scraps Deployment of 4,000 Troops to Poland

9/11 Memorial and Museum Adds 7th Moment of Silence

AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon Launch Joint Venture to Tackle Dead Zones

Stefania Cox is an NTD News anchor and national correspondent based at the network's global headquarters in New York City. Stefania anchors "NTD Newsroom," and co-anchors "NTD News Today" weekdays at 10:00 am ET.

Stefania Cox

Trump Committed to US Defense, Prosperity, Amid China Talks: Expert

Jerome Powell Ends Tenure as Fed Chair

US Government Sues Chick-fil-A Over Religious Rights

California Gubernatorial Candidates Make Closing Pitches to Voters 

House Passes 1st Fiscal Year 2027 Appropriations Bill

Jason Blair is a national correspondent for NTD News based in California. 

Jason Blair

Federal Judge Partly Blocks Texas Immigration Law

Trump Announces National Garden of American Heroes Plans

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 15)

Paul Greaney is an NTD news anchor and producer. Since joining the company in 2018, he has anchored the station’s flagship Evening News broadcast, launched the NTD Business show, and produced documentary reports on pointed issues. 

The highlight of Paul’s time in the field was his coverage of the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Paul Greaney

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 14)

Kevin Hogan is an NTD News data reporter and national correspondent based at the network's global headquarters in New York City. Kevin covers breaking news, as well as U.S. and global current events. He conveys the news through data visualizations and investigates pressing issues.

Kevin Hogan

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 13)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 12)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 11)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 8)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 7)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 6)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 5)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 4)

Fast, compelling, first-hand news from China. China in Focus airs Monday–Friday at 8 p.m. ET.

China in Focus

China Sends Warships to Pacific Drill as Tensions With Japan Rise

Reuters is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages.

Reuters

We present news that is truthful and based on facts, outside of the political fog. Instead of focusing on the negative things happening around us, our mission is to give our viewers a good morning with empathetic and uplifting stories. Our aim is to provide an antidote to negativity by shining a light on the best side of people. We speak to inspiring people who positively impact communities, pursue topics that represent our common human values, and will never miss an opportunity to bring you heartwarming stories.

NTD Good Morning

2 US Embassy Personnel Assigned to Cartel Case Killed in Car Accident

The Associated Press is an American not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. 

The Associated Press

US News

Gunman Kills 8 Children, Including 7 of His Own, in Louisiana Mass Shooting

Flora Hua is a reporter based at NTD's global headquarters in New York City, where she covers China news, U.S.-China relations, and human rights issues. Flora primarily contributes to NTD's "China in Focus."  

Flora Hua

Trump: Seized Iranian Ship May Have ‘A Gift From China’

Joseph Lord is a congressional reporter for The Epoch Times.


Joseph Lord

Aldgra Fredly is a freelance writer covering U.S. and Asia Pacific news for The Epoch Times.

Aldgra Fredly

Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani Hospitalized in Critical Condition: Spokesman

Wildfires Across Georgia and Florida Have Destroyed Nearly 50 Homes and Are Forcing Evacuations

US Warns of China Hacks via Routers, Smart Devices

Juliet Song is an international correspondent exclusively covering China news for NTD. She primarily contributes to NTD's "China in Focus," covering U.S.-China relations, the Chinese regime's human rights abuses, and domestic unrest inside China.

Juliet Song

2 Americans Among Suspected Communist Rebels Killed in Clashes With Troops, Philippine Officials Say

Ryan Morgan is a reporter for The Epoch Times focusing on military and foreign affairs. He was previously a news writer for NTD. 


Ryan Morgan

Mari Otsu is NTD's White House correspondent based in Washington. 

Mari Otsu

World News

Middle East

Iran

3 US Warships Fend Off Iranian Attacks, Trump Says Ceasefire Still Holds

Health News

3 Dead in Suspected Hantavirus Outbreak on Cruise Ship in Atlantic Ocean: WHO

Alaskan crabbers and their communities are facing another difficult year after regulators announced that the East Bering Sea will be closed for the 2022 season to snow crab fishing.

“The Bering Sea snow crab fishery is closed for the first time ever,” Jamie Goen, executive director of Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AlaskaBeringSeaCrabbers/posts/5426747174046284">said</a> in a statement. “Second and third generation crab-fishing families will go out of business due to the lack of meaningful protections by decision-makers to help crab stocks recover."

Meanwhile, eastern Canada’s snow crab fishery in the Labrador Sea reported bumper harvests of snow crabs this year, with processors unable to keep up with the workload.

Catch quotas for Alaska’s yearly harvest in the East Bering are set every September according to limits set by a federal management plan, and advice from NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, referencing the results of the agency’s annual Bering Sea bottom trawl survey and other stock monitoring data.

On Oct. 10, communities were told (<a href="https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/applications/dcfnewsrelease/1441272349.pdf">pdf</a>) by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game that their snow crab industry, which had anticipated a $200 million 2022 harvest, would be entirely closed for the 2022–2023 season, following big quota cuts in 2021. The department cited stock estimates “below the ADF&G regulatory threshold for opening a fishery.”

The Bristol Bay red king crab harvest was also declared closed for the second year in a row. In October 2021, the department for the first time since the 1990s banned harvests for the entire king crab season. Their Alaskan populations have been in a slow decline over the last decade.

Crabs, which are caught direct from the seabed in pots, are Alaska’s third most valuable fishery. There are three big remaining crab fisheries in the Bering Sea; the 2 to 4 pound snow crab, the 20 pound Red King Crab, and less sought-after Tanner crab—all of which are reportedly in decline.

Snow crabs, which are smaller than their King crab cousins, have thinner shells, which make them easier to crack to access their sweet, briny meat by hand.


<h2>Mass Mortality Event?</h2>
Management of Alaska’s snow crab populations had been thought to be quite successful until they unexpectedly took a nosedive in 2021.

Unfortunately, many locals were planning for a massive snow crab harvest in 2021 after scientists reported in 2018 and 2019 that record numbers of juvenile crabs had been seen swimming around on the ocean floor.

But it wasn’t to be. Quotas were dramatically cut in 2021 by almost 90 percent after NOAA reported a population bust, declaring snow crabs in the East Bering Sea overfished. The crash was considered a “mysterious mortality event.”

The cause of the crash is still unknown. Scientists have presented a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article/78/2/502/5920400">range of theories</a>; that the crabs have moved into Russian waters in the western Bering Sea or further north, were killed as bycatch in trawler fisheries, died from disease in the warmer waters or from changes in salinity, or were more exposed to predators in the warmer waters. There were known shifts in the food chain in 2022, with scientists reporting the largest run of Bristol Bay Sockeye Salmon on record.

Now, crab-dependent communities are devastated, with blue-collar workers and small family businesses hit the worst, bracing for another year of lost crabbing revenue. While the U.S. Department of Commerce has directed nearly $132 million to Alaska for the fisheries disaster, the money won’t reach impacted families and their communities for many years, Goen said.

In 2020, commercial landings of Alaskan snow crab totaled more than 36.6 million pounds and were valued at more than $101.7 million, according to NOAA Fisheries' commercial fishing landings database. But populations have declined since 2019, coinciding with warming in the Bering Sea with changes in the Arctic Oscillation. In 2021, the harvest of 5.6 million pounds was the smallest in over 40 years.

Canada is the world’s largest producer of snow crab. In 2022, its snow crab fishery increased its total allowable catch by 32 percent to an over 111 million pound harvest. Russia, in second place, harvested 103 million pounds of snow crab in 2022, mostly in the Barents Sea.

The Biden administration banned imports of Russian seafood products in March, which saw Russian snow crab imports curbed and global prices drop.
<h2>Alaska’s ‘Rationing’</h2>
The prized Alaskan crab fisheries is managed by one of the most involved systems in the world. Run by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, the crab fisheries were “rationalized” in 2005 with the aim of protecting the fisheries from overfishing and ensuring sustainable harvests. The rationalizing split fishing effort between existing harvesters based on their past catch history.

But what has unfolded in reality has been anything but that intended outcome, Goen told the council in September in a letter of concern.

Under the council’s stewardship, the rationalized snow crab fishery in Alaska has collapsed—with other crab species also in continued rapid decline. The council has promised to improve its monitoring and research efforts, saying that some factors like climate change are beyond its means to manage.

“This is the first rationalized fishery in the country to suffer this magnitude of fishery collapse and correlated economic harm. … [W]e urge you to help us find a better path forward,” Goen wrote.

Goen said that the community didn’t believe it was fair to ban crabbers from harvest completely.

She asked for a reduced level of harvest for the season instead of an outright ban, "given the uncertainty in the Bering Sea snow crab stock assessment, paired with the unaccounted-for portion of the same stock in the Northern Bering Sea and hybrid populations.

"We ask for some level of harvest even if we are approaching harvest control rules, noting that collective fishing impacts have not come close to exceeding snow crab acceptable biological catch levels,” she said of seemingly unaffected populations in other regions.

“We ask that you create some immediate flexibility in the system to adjust to the unique situation … using the best available science and moving crab stocks towards more sustainability, while also balancing the needs of fishing communities consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act," which required the fair and equitable allocation of impacts of regulation.

“The uncertainties in current status, stock estimates, and management leave some room to consider the immediate human dimensions being impacted by allowing for a small, directed crab fishery to balance the needs of fishermen and the associated fishing communities.”

She said that it was unfair for regulators to punish crabbers over other fishers, as the Bering Sea trawl sector is currently allowed 4.35 million crabs in bycatch, even while snow crab stock is at low levels.

“The direct crab fishery should be allowed at least that same amount,” she said.

<em>From <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/alaskan-snow-crab-fishery-closed-as-canada-russia-report-bumper-harvests_4799352.html">The Epoch Times</a></em>

Videos

Business News

Latest Clips

Melanie is a reporter and editor covering world news. She has a background in environmental research.

Melanie Sun

Latest and breaking news, documentaries, movies, and lifestyle content on NTD+.
 
Empower your knowledge and elevate your spirit with NTD+, your go-to destination for truthful news, insightful documentaries, and captivating lifestyle content that enriches your life.