The Alaska Department of Fish and Game said this week it was canceling winter snow crab season in the Bering Sea for the first time because of a drop in crab populations. The fishing industry described the cancellation as a blow.
Biologists say the warming of the Bering Sea in recent years is a possible factor in the decline in snow crab populations. The number of crabs has now dropped below the threshold for opening a fishery and fish game area speak in a statement, adding that the Bering Sea snow crab season, which normally opens on October 15, will be canceled this year.
Crabbers and industry officials were upset with the state’s decision to cancel the crop.
Miranda Westphal, a biologist with the state’s fish and game department, said Friday that they are investigating why crab populations have dropped.
“Between 2018 and 2021, we have lost about 90 per cent of these animals,” Ms. Westphal said.
Alaska is the fastest-warming state in the United States, according to Climate Central, an independent group of scientists that research and report on climate change. And rising temperatures in Alaska’s frigid waters could kill crustaceans.
Ms Westphal said: ‘Snow crabs are an Arctic species, noting that they need cold water to survive.
She said that between 2018 and 2019, the Bering Sea was “extremely warm and populations of snow crabs huddled together in the coolest water they could find”.
As the water warms, their metabolism increases, requiring more fuel, she says.
“They can starve and not have enough food,” she said.
Ms Westphal said illness could also be a factor.
“We don’t know and we will never really know because the crabs are gone,” she said.
The snow crab, which has a round hard shell, is the smallest commercially caught species in the Bering Sea, Ms. Westphal said. Male snow crabs can grow up to 6 inches wide, and females rarely grow larger than 3 inches National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Snow crabs are found off the coast of Alaska in the Bering, Beaufort and Chukchi seas.
About 65 boats usually participate in the snow crab season in the Bering Sea.
“It would be devastating for small businesses like me and devastating for small businesses like me,” said Gabriel Prout, 32, who runs his own fishing boat business with his father and brothers in Kodiak, Alaska. with a fleet of crabs.
Before the collapse, he said, he was averaging 500,000 to 750,000 pounds of snow crab each season.
Mr. Prout said he hoped that the state could proceed with “the disaster relief request we made”.
Jamie Goen, chief executive officer of Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, an Alaskan trade group, said in a statement, “This is truly a difficult and unprecedented time for our iconic crab fishery. Alaska as well as the hard-working fishermen and the communities that depend on them.”
He predicts crab fishing families will go bankrupt.
State officials said in the cancellation notice that while they knew the crop closure would be difficult for the industry and for the community, the agency “must balance these impacts with the need for conservation sustainability and sustainability of crab stocks”.
Ms Westphal said she hoped that stopping the season “will protect this part of the population that will mate and produce more offspring.”
