According to Unalaska’s local news station–KUCB News–the Bristol Bay King crab season was fished quite a bit later into December compared to the normal average finish date of November 15th. As of Christmas Eve–December 24th–there was still one crabber out at sea pulling pots to make his quota. The reason for this? …According to the article the number of crab per pot was down this season compared to the last two years. On a high note however, prices seemed way up this season with an average of 81 cents per lb increase over last year.
From KUCB News…UNALASKA, AK (2008-12-24) The Bristol Bay Red King Crab season is closing up later than usual this year. Fish & Game area management biologist Forrest Bowers said most boats usually finish up by November 15. This year, at least a quarter were still fishing through the beginning of December to catch the 20 million pound TAC. Now, only one of the 78 boats is still on the water trying for the last 75,000 pounds of TAC. Bowers said the catch rate dropped from 28 legal crab per pot last year to 22 this year.
“A little bit of a concern there but relative to the history of the fishery 22 legal crab per pot is still very good fishing it’s just not quite as good as in 2006 and 2007,” he said.
The average weight of the crab increased from about 6.5 pounds to 6.7. Bowers said the decrease in abundance but increase in weight kept the TAC stable at about 20 million pounds, which is unusual…
For the 2009 Snow crab/Opilio season, the State of Alaska posted their list of pre-season registered vessels in October. Each year the boats listed become more familiar to ‘Deadliest Catch’ fans. How many do you know?
Adventure Alaska Challenger Alaska Spirit Alaskan Enterprise
Aleutian Beauty Aleutian Lady Aleutian No. 1 American Lady
Arctic Fox Arctic Hunter Arctic Lady Arctic Mariner
Arctic Sea Atlantico Autumn Dawn Baranof
Barbara J Bella K Bering Hunter Bering Sea
Bering Star Big Blue Billikin Bountiful
Brenna A Bristol Mariner Bulldog Cape Caution
Cascade Mariner Confidence Constellation Controller Bay
Cornelia Marie Destination Determined Early Dawn
Erla N Farrar Sea Farwest Leader Fierce Allegiance
Guardian Gulf Winds Handler Incentive
Island Mist Jennifer A Kari Marie Karin Lynn
Katie K Keta Kevleen K Kiska Sea
Kodiak Kustatan Lady Aleutian Lisa Marie
Maverick Melanie Mystery Bay Nordic Mariner
North American North Sea Northwestern Nuka Island
Ocean Fury Pacific Mariner Paragon Pinnacle
Polar Lady Polar Sea Provider Reliance
Rollo Royal Viking Sandra Five Scandies Rose
Seabrooke Silver Dolphin Silver Spray Southern Wind
Starward Stormbird Sultan Time Bandit
Trailblazer Valient Viekoda Bay Trailblazer
Vixen Western Mariner Westward Wind Wizard
Zone Five Viking Queen
Now’s the perfect time to send a greeting to your favorite fishermen from ‘Deadliest Catch’. You can send a holiday greeting, New Year’s wishes, or simply a letter of support–and by the time they all get ready to head out for Opilio season, you’re letter will be there (Alaska)…. Word is they love fan mail!
(Fisherman’s name)
F/V Time Bandit
PO Box 921290
Dutch Harbor, AK 99692
(Fisherman’s name)
F/V Northwestern
C/O Trident Foods
PO Box 9
Akutan, AK 99553
(Fisherman’s Name)
F/V Wizard
Westward Seafoods
PO Box 920608
Dutch Harbor, AK 99692
(Fisherman’s Name)
PO Box 32466
Amarillo, TX 79120-2466 (This is a forwarding address and has worked for several years for the Cornelia Marie)
KUCB New out of Unalaska/Dutch Harbor reports that the first loads of Red King crab were delivered last weekend by the F/V Bering Star. They brought in about 14,000 pounds as they picked up additional crab pots from shore. One of the crew was on hand to dish out information as the harvest was unloaded. he said they initially set 116 pots and spread them out about a pot for every mile. That gave them the opportunity to figure out where the crabs were and then they honed in on that spot.
As for prices this year…
Most processors are offering $5 per pound of red king this season, 57 cents more than last year. With a total allowable catch of almost 20.4 million pounds, that puts the ex-vessel price at least $101.8 million. Greg White with ICE, the Intercooperative Exchange, said he thinks prices are higher than last year because the Japanese yen is strong in comparison to the U.S dollar. He also says the crack down on illegal fishing in Russia makes Alaska’s market stronger.
The October 15th Bristol Bay Red King Crab season is about to kick off and most fishing vessels are well on their way or already in Dutch Harbor preparing for their grueling work. The “talk on the dock”–according to a Seattle, WA insider– is that Original Productions has many new cameramen on the scene this year as some ‘Deadliest Catch’ veteran cameramen are still tied up with ‘America’s Toughest Job’–currently airing on NBC. And although there doesn’t seem to be a confirmed “boat list” for season 5, Original Productions/Discovery crews have already started preseason filming. The Northwestern headed north on September 29th and is either at its destination or will be shortly, The North American was set to leave port a few days ago, the Cornelia Marie and Time Bandit were already up in Alaska, and the Wizard left some time ago. The quota or Total Allowable Catch was announced a little over a week ago and the discussion for this season’s crab prices is currently taking place. (See below for a list of all registered fishing vessels for this season).
Pre-season registration was held by the State of Alaska Fish & Game recently, ending on September 24th, and the following fishing vessels are now currently registered for King Crab in the Bristol Bay region–which is where our familiar ‘Deadliest Catch’ fishermen catch their quota…
Note of interest: Veteran ‘Deadliest Catch’ fans probably remember the Billikin and it’s skipper Jeff Weeks from season 1. After that season, the Trident-owned vessel was docked for several years as its quota was apparently fished by other Trident vessels. This year however, the Billikin is on the list of pre-registered vessels…So welcome back to the fleet!
Adventure Alaska Challenger Alaska Spirit
Alaskan Enterprise Aleutian Beauty Aleutian Lady
Aleutian Mariner American Lady Arctic Fox
Arctic Hunter Arctic Lady Arctic Sea
Arctic Mariner Atlantico Autumn Dawn
Baranof Barbara J Bella K
Bering Sea Bering Star Big Blue
Billikin Bountiful Brenna A
Bistol Mariner BullDog Cape Caution
Cascade Mariner Confidence Constellation
Controller Bay Cornelia Marie Destination
Early Dawn Farrar Sea Farwest Leader
Fierce Allegiance Guardian Gulf Winds
Handler Incentive Island Mist
Jennifer A Kari Marie Karin Lynn
Katie K Keta Kevleen K
Kiska Sea Kodiak Kustatan
Lady Aleutian Lisa Marie Mark I
Maverick Melanie Mystery Bay
Nordic Mariner North American North Sea
Northern Spirit Northwestern Nuka Island
Ocean Fury Pacific Mariner Paragon
Pinnacle Polar Lady Polar Sea
Reliance Rollo Royal American
Royal Viking Sandra Five Scandies Rose
SeaBrooke Silver Dolphin Silver Spray
Southern Wind Starward Stormbird
Sultan Time Bandit Valiant
Viekoda Bay Viking Queen Vixen
Western Mariner Westward Wind Wizard
Zone Five Provider Bering Hunter
Trailblazer
UNALASKA, AK (2008-09-30) The Alaska Department of Fish & Game has released this season’s Crab TACs for Bristol Bay red king and Bering Sea snow and tanner crabs. The seasons will open on October 15th.
The Bristol Bay Red King total allowable catch (TAC) allows for 20,364,000 pounds, a very similar number to last year.
The Bering Sea Snow Crab fishery total TAC is 58,500,000 pounds, 4.5 million pounds less than last year. ADF&G Biologist Forrest Bowers said some had expected the TAC to go up not down because of previous assessment models.
“So that was a surprise and I think members of the industry will be disappointed that the TAC has dropped,” he said. “But really when you look at the uncertainty around the estimates, often they’re plus or minus 30 percent or more. When you’re talking about a change on the order of 6 or 7 million pounds when you’re talking about 50 millions, that’s not a big change.”
Recently, the Crab Plan Team–a part of the North Pacific Fishery Managment Council–held a meeting in Seattle, Washington where they discussed and assessed the status of crab levels/stocks, the crab rationalization program, and other related topics that assisted them in creating their own recommendations for the 2008-2009 crab Total Allowable Catch. Whether these numbers will become the ‘official’ TAC for the crab fleet remains to be seen but the information is certainly interesting and obviously much thought and study was put into the result….
…The recommended OFL for Bristol Bay red king crab, including the bycatch in the non-target fisheries, is 24.2 million pounds a similar number to last season.
The recommendation for opilio crab is similar to last season as well 77.3 million pounds. Alaska Fish & Game biologist Forrest Bowers said some people expected it to rise this year.
“The stock assessment model for snow crab last year was predicting that abundance was going to increase and we’d have a higher OFL,” he said. “But after the results of the summer survey came in, the survey results did not support an increase in abundance so the model estimates from last year were revised to reflect that.”
This is the first year the crab plan team has recommended new OFLs. Previous seasons used the numbers that were fixed in the management plan. The new process revises the OFLs annually. Bowers says the new process will result in better management practices and healthier stocks.
KIAL News out of Dutch Harbor, Alaska reports on the booming Opilio crab season & fishing that’s currently taking place in the Bering sea…
Per Charles Homans, the sea ice has encroached to the Pribilof islands but so far, doesn’t appear to have slowed down the fishing. So far 28 million pounds of Opilio have been offloaded to processors out of 56 million total allowable catch. Pots have been averaging 300 or more Opilio per pot and another industry source also reports that many fishing crews have pulled entire strings filled with 400-500 Opilio per pot!
Sounds like although a dozen fishing vessels or so have finished up for the season already, most crews will most likely fish well in to March and even April.
This current update is also available to listen to:
