Pre-season vessel registration is underway for three Bering Sea commercial crab fisheries, raising optimism that there will be harvests of Bristol Bay red king crab and Bering Sea snow and tanner crab in the 2025-2026 season.
“That's a good sign that all of the big three crab fisheries will likely be open,”
“Last season, only about half of the crab fleet fished since the harvest levels were at historic lows after several years of closure,” said Goen, who is also one of two voting members from the state of Washington serving on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.
“Crab harvesters are optimistic for a better season this fall,” Goen said. “The crab stocks looked healthy last season, and several captains thought the harvest levels could have been higher. In addition, we're hearing reports from some other fishing sectors that come across crab noting there are lots of crab out there,” Goen said. “The snow crab population, in particular, may be bouncing back faster than expected,” she said.
“The industry is anxious to hear reports from NOAA Fisheries’ summer survey to see if it validates what the fishermen are seeing. The survey data will be reported when the council's crab plan team meets the week of Sept. 8 to start the process of setting crab harvest levels before the scheduled Oct. 15 season start.”
Vessel registration with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game began on Monday, Aug. 11, to determine the number of observers needed to meet fishery coverage goals. ADF&G officials noted that the pre-registration requirement itself did not imply that any of these three fisheries would open for the 2025-2026 season.
Total allowable catches (TAC) are to be announced in ADF&G advisory announcements in early October.
The deadline for registration is Sept. 24. Only one preseason registration form will be needed for each vessel, and a Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission (CFEC) permit card is not required for pre-season registering, ADF&G officials said.
The pre-season vessel registration form and lists of vessels preseason registered for each fishery can be accessed online at: http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/cfregion4/dynamic/shellfish/management/vesreg/index.
For the 2025/26 crab season, ADF&G has modified the vessel selection plan for the Bristol Bay red king crab, Bering Sea snow, Eastern and Western bairdi tanner crab fisheries. To ensure observer coverage goals are met, all vessels pre-season registered for these fisheries will be selected for observer coverage.
ADF&G noted that it is the responsibility of vessel captains to contact Saltwater, Inc. at 907-539-2548 to arrange for observer coverage, to include if the vessel chooses to not participate in 2025-2026 fisheries.
Failure to provide a minimum of 10 days advance notice prior to vessel departure may delay fishing operations or result in enforcement action, ADF&G officials said. Observer coverage waivers will not be issued if an observer is not available due to lack of sufficient notice.
Although all vessels will be selected to carry an observer, observer coverage waivers will be issued based on observer availability and the percentage of active vessels already covered when individual vessel fishing plans are declared with Saltwater, Inc., ADF&G officials said. Full selection will ensure an adequate number of vessels will be available to carry an observer should fleet consolidation occur.
ADF&G expects to deploy observers for the upcoming season at rates consistent with past years: 20 percent vessel coverage for Bristol Bay red king crab, 30 percent vessel coverage for snow crab, and 30-100 percent vessel coverage for tanner crab. If selected, catcher vessels will be required to carry an observer during 100 percent of their fishing operations. Catcher vessel observer coverage for these fisheries is contracted and paid for by ADF&G.
All crab processing vessels are required to carry a crab observer during 100 percent of the vessel’s crab processing operations. Bering Sea crab processing vessels must arrange and pay for their observer coverage. Catcher-processor vessels may receive reimbursement from ADF&G for 20 percent of their observer cost for Bristol Bay red king crab, and 30 percent of observer costs for Bering Sea snow and tanner crab fisheries.
A year ago, ADF&G set the Bristol Bay red king crab TAC at 2.31 million pounds, an increase from the previous season's 2.15-million-pound quota after a two-year closure. That included 2.07 million pounds for individual fishing quota (IFQ) permit holders and 231,000 pounds for community development quota (CDQ) groups. The fishery closed in December 2024 after the entire quota was harvested.
The Bering Sea tanner crab fishery for 2024-2025 had a TAC of 4.5 million pounds in the western area and 1.77 million pounds in the eastern area, with total reported harvest of 3.6 million pounds in the west and 1.70 million pounds in the east by late March 2025, representing 80 percent and 96 percent of their respective TACs.
The 2024-2025 snow crab quota was set at 4.72 million pounds, a significantly smaller harvest than in previous years, after a stock collapse due to a marine heatwave. The TAC included 4,248,000 pounds for IFQ permit holders and 472,000 pounds for CDQ groups.
According to ADF&G, as of March of this year 4.3 million pounds of Bering Sea snow crab had been harvested.
The Bering Sea snow crab population saw a dramatic decline between 2018 and 2021, with estimates of over 10 billion snow crab disappearing due to a marine heatwave and subsequent ecological shifts. The 4.72-million-pound quota was the smallest in the history of the fishery.
