Red King Crab

NOAA Fisheries, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game manage the US red king crab fishery under the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crabs. The FMP defers management of Alaskan crab fisheries to the State of Alaska.  Under federal oversight, all Alaskan state regulations must comply with the FMP, the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and other applicable federal laws. The FMP divides red king crab into four separate stocks in Alaska: Bristol Bay, Norton Sound, Pribilof Islands, and Western Aleutian Islands. Of these four stocks, the largest occurs in Bristol Bay. Consequently, the majority of the Alaskan red king crab catch occurs in Bristol Bay with some additional catch occurring in Norton Sound. Fishing for red king crab has been closed in the Pribilof Islands and Western Aleutian Islands for many years and other stocks are currently to small to support any commercial fishery.

Each year, fishery managers set the harvest limit for the next red king crab fishing season using annual abundance estimates collected by the National Marine Fishery Service (NMFS). The NMFS, along with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, prepares and reviews an annual stock assessment and fishery evaluation (SAFE) report for each king crab fishery. The SAFE report summarizes historic and current abundance, the economic status of the fisheries, total allowable catch (TAC) limits, and season opening dates as well as generates harvest and stock projections for the upcoming fishing season. Individual shares or quotas are then allocated among harvesters, processors, and coastal communities through the Crab Rationalization Program. During the fishing season, fishery managers monitor vessels and catch in real time and can close the fishery once harvest limits are met or exceeded. The Crab Rationalization Program also includes a Community Development Quota allowing local communities the opportunity to purchase shares in the fishery before they go on sale (up to ten percent of the TAC). 

Among other measures the FMP establishes are:

• Catch and harvest restrictions (only males of legal size may be harvested; fishing cannot coincide with mating and molting periods)
• All vessels must carry a vessel monitoring system and must report all landings electronically
• Observers are required on 20 percent of the vessels operating in the fishery to report data on catch, bycatch, and fishing violations
• Mandatory vessel registrations, licenses, and permits
• Gear restrictions and modifications (all pots must include escape panels and rings to prevent ghost fishing and reduce bycatch in the event a pot is lost at sea)

The US red king crab fishery is an incredibly lucrative and well-managed fishery and has been valuedbetweenUS $45 and $95 million a year since 2001 –with the 2014 harvest being valued at more than US $85 million. According to a 2015 stock assessment, all four Alaskan stocks of red king crab are not subject to overfishing and the Bristol Bay, Norton Sound, and Pribilof Island stocks are not overfished.