Oh snow!

The snow crab population in the eastern Bering Sea is experiencing a decline which affected the 2016/2017 fishery, which I reported here. That fishery is just now finishing up with the first boat loaded and headed home (shared by the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers). How that fishery performed and how that population is affected will have cascading impacts on market prices, new snow crab products (like McDonald's snow crab sandwich), next year's population health, and next year's fishery catch limits.

That's the Alaska side. What about Canada's snow crab fishery? They're probably doing good, eh? I mean, they have this guy:

(source: New York Times)

Sadly, even Justin Trudeau can't help the snow crabs. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) just released their snow crab stock assessment which shows that the biomass of legal crab for the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery has declined by 80% since 2013.

EIGHTY PERCENT!!!

You guys. That's so bad. As Darrell Mullowney of the DFO says, "It's not a good news story." Or as Keith Sullivan of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union says, "It's terrible, terrible news for people in the industry." Yeah man, terrible for the industry AND terrible for the crabs and their ecosystem. Remember, humans aren't the only ones who like to eat snow crabs. Atlantic cods do too, and they haven't really been living high on the hog anyway (what with its collapse in 1992).

Atlantic cod Gadus morhua (source: Joachim S. Müller)

So it seems that our Bering Sea opies aren't the only ones facing declines. Again, Mullowney commented on the global scale of depressed snow crab stocks, particularly in their southern most areas: "The magnitude of this in terms of socioeconomics I can't really quantify." We'll have to wait and see.

Big Trouble in Little Bering Sea

Oh man, you guys. This is a doozy.

I posted a brief Tanner crab (Chionoecetes bairdi) update from Alaska Department of Fish and Game yesterday on Facebook. TL;DR - the Bering Sea fishery for bairdis is closed for the 2016/2017 season.

The bairdi fishery in the Bering Sea has had a rocky past with openings and closures fluctuating throughout the years, but it was starting to look good again even as recently as 2015! The fishery was closed from 1997 - 2004, open fully 2006 - 2009, closed again from 2010 - 2013, then open fully until 2015 with high catches and high vessel participation (112 vessels in the 2015/2016 season compared to 32 in 2013/2014).

from the 2016 crab SAFE data

You can read all about the fishery in the latest Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands stock assessment and fishery management report (in nerd lingo - the crab SAFE), which is put out by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. Here's a link to the Crab Plan Team with all their fun reports, and this link will send you to the current Council meeting (happening now) where you can find the 2016 crab SAFE in the Agenda. It's listed under "C. Major Issues/Final Action Items" as the first item.

OK, so that's bairdi, but you all know I really love me some opies. How are they doing?

Not good. ADF&G announced that Bering Sea snow crab will be open this year (October 15th, as usual) but with the lowest total allowable catch (TAC) in 45 years. The low TAC, at 21.57 million pounds, is  nearly HALF of what it was last year (40.57 million pounds)! Why? Because surveys of the crabs have shown a decline in the number of mature males out there (who we like to eat) AND mature females out there (who make the babies).

from the 2016 crab SAFE data

This low baby-makin' biomass means potentially fewer adults in the future. That's why management has to be so conservative to allow for the crabs to do their business and replenish the stock. But for the moment it also means low catches and A LOT less money for our crab fishermen, processors, and on down the line. The other thing fishermen have to worry about is any accidental retention of bairdis since that fishery is closed, making these crab-cousins prohibited.

opilio up top, bairdi on bottom

Good luck, crabs!

Caution for California crab lovers

A nasty little algae has been blooming like crazy lately (thanks, global warming!) and it's having some pretty serious consequences for Dungeness-loving consumers in California. The diatom, Pseudo-nitzschia sp., produces domoic acid, and at the high productivity rate it's experiencing because of warmer ocean conditions, the domoic acid is startin' trouble. When consumed at high concentrations, domoic acid can cause seizures, comas, and death! Yikes! It also causes short-term memory loss, so when people (or animals) get it from eating shellfish, it's known as Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning. (Remember learning about Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning here?) The domoic acid bioaccumulates in filter feeders like clams, mussels, and crabs (!!!) who just want to munch on some phytoplankton.

"Lay off me, I'm starving!" - Metacarcinus magister (PC Brian Feulner)

Speaking of crabs, California has closed its recreational and commercial crab seasons for both Dungeness and rock crabs because of this domoic acid contamination! This closure not only affects consumers (in a good way, really, because DEATH), but also the fishermen themselves who rely on these crabs for their livelihood. So it's kinda a lose-lose situation at the moment: fishermen lose money and their ability to pay their bills-bills-bills, or consumers run the risk of short-term memory loss, paralysis, and death.

This is the algae producing the acid that has halted #dungeness crab season. Here come the researchers… pic.twitter.com/1RcddYyj4C

— Wayne Freedman (@WayneFreedman) November 10, 2015

How realistic is this concern? Well, dead sea otters have been reported with domoic acid in their systems, several large whales have washed up dead and the toxic diatom is a suspect (PS, the dog in the 3rd picture is adorable!), and even this little sea lion pup was poisoned in utero:

little Danzig in recovery, lucky guy! (PC Paul Chinn, The Chronicle)

Cuteness aside, it's an issue that needs to be monitored, and all my dungie-loving people out there should remain cautious about where your crab were caught and how they were prepared!

What's goin' on

It's almost snow, Tanner, and red king crab season! The opening is October 15th! The limit for Bristol Bay red king crab is 8.6 million pounds and the reopened Tanner crab fishery is 3.1 million pounds. The snow crab quota almost 54 million pounds (down a but from last year's 66.3 million pounds) - they're kind of a big deal!

Are you ready? More importantly, are the fishermen?

(Turn off the closed captioning by hitting the "CC" icon for easier viewing.)

Mark Begich commented on the importance of the fishing permits: “These permits take hours to process. The paperwork trail is important so we know it’s not illegal crab caught by fish pirates on the other side of the Bering Sea. The paperwork trail helps Americans know the crab we’re eating is safe."

it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it!

Special Note: This is currently happening in Alaska. This post takes no political sides. This post is only to share information regarding the Alaskan crab fisheries. Please, no negative comments!

Tour the NOAA lab in Juneau!

Saturday July 27th is Ted Stevens Day in Alaska. Say what you will about Senator Stevens (his life certainly wasn't boring), but the United States has protected and managed fisheries because of the Fishery Conservation and Management Act, passed with no small effort from Sen. Stevens (R-AK) and Sen. Warren Magnuson (D-WA). You probably know it as the Magnuson-Stevens Act. The highlights:
 

Promote safety of human life at sea

(I was certainly thankful for this as a fisheries observer!)

Prevent overfishing while reaching an optimum yield

Manage fisheries based on the BEST scientific information available

Take into account the importance of fishery resources on fishing communities

and minimize any negative impacts to those communities
(obviously a big deal up here!)

Limit bycatch mortality

(this affects a lot of groundfish fisheries that may scoop up

our beloved crabs as well as their intended catch)

I paraphrased these from a pamphlet at my work. Where is that, you may be asking? Why, at the Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute. Thanks for asking. We're hosting an open house and giving tours of the NOAA facility tomorrow to celebrate Ted Stevens Day, and you're invited! Swing by July 26th anytime between 2:30 and 7:00 pm to take a tour, handle some sea stars at our touch tank, and nosh on snacks complimentary of the Ted Stevens Foundation. I'll be there working (SCIENCE!) and hanging out by the aquarium to answer any questions you may have, crabby or otherwise!

Ted Stevens *hearts* king crabs

On your marks, get set, Tanner crab fish!

A Tanner crab (Chionoecetes bairdi) fishery is opening tomorrow off of Kodiak. Where, you might ask? Right here:

beautiful Kiliuda Bay

But wait, what's all that racket going on in Kiliuda Bay, home of the upcoming Tanner crab fishery?

Oh, this old thing?

That's right. Sitting in Kiliuda Bay is the Kulluk, Shell's oil rig that had run aground off Kodiak January 1st. The Kulluk is using Kiliuda Bay as safe harbor, but as such, any boats that will be participating in tomorrow's fishery will need to get special permission from the Coast Guard to do the same if the fishermen want to sleep in the bay. As for the fishery itself, the Kulluk should be out of the way as it is anchored in a nursery area for juvenile Tanner crabs and is therefore closed to the fishery.

Kiliuda Bay is enlarged showing the grey area closed to fishing

As long as the Kulluk stays "intact and upright" it shouldn't pose a threat to the crabs. And we can totally trust that nothing like that would happen, right? I mean, it was built in 1982 (and is older than me) but survived a season in the Arctic and didn't spill any oil during the grounding, so...

(waves crashing over the Kulluk when it was first grounded)

Sorry, all that craziness aside, the Tanner crab fishery is opening and you can place orders for pick up in Kodiak, Homer, or Anchorage! The Bering Sea Tanner fishery is closed for 2013 so this Kodiak fishery is a great opportunity for Alaskans (or at least those not privy to Southeast Tanners) to get some fresh C. bairdi meat and support local fishermen.

 a good Kodiak catch

Are you involved in the Tanner crab fishery or from Kodiak? Let me know how the fishery goes and what, if anything, you had to change to accommodate the Kulluk!

Dungeness crabs rock!

I couldn't come up with a good title for this post because I'm just too full of Dungie crab goodness to think. But I have some pictures of a recent outing with some friends and I thought I'd share some tidbits of information with you about the Dungeness crab (Metacarcinus magister) fishery.

SOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOD!

The personal use fishery is open all year round in Southeast Alaska, which means you can catch Dungies in the winter, spring, summer, or fall! All you have to do is call go out crabbing. (Sorry, I got stuck in a James Taylor song.)

enjoying a sunny summer Juneau day

The 2010 commercial fishery landed 3.569 million pounds of Dungeness crab in Southeast AK, with an exvessel price (in Juneau) of $1.75 per pound (it was $1.71 in Petersburg and Wrangell).

the mighty claw: both strong and tasty

Southeast Alaskans aren't the only predators getting in on this crab action: otters, sea lions, and even the occasional sculpin will feast on the crabs:

Sean holding a crab claw piece taken from the stomach of a sculpin we caught

(totally NOT from one of the crabs we'd just eaten...) 

I hope you learned a little (laughed a little?) and, if you're in Southeast with a crab permit, will enjoy these guys from the proper areas and at the proper size (6.5 inch carapace width). Thanks! And thanks again, guys, for all the Dungeness crabs!

crab pots and mountains: perfect Southeast view!