Alaska fishermen will be allowed to harvest lucrative red king crab in the Bering Sea

abcnews.go.com:

Alaska fishermen will be able to harvest red king crab for the first time in two years

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska fishermen will be able to harvest red king crab for the first time in two years, offering a slight reprieve to the beleaguered fishery beset by low numbers likely exacerbated by climate change.

There was no such rebound for snow crab, however, and that fishery will remain closed for a second straight year, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Friday.

“The Bristol Bay red king crab fishery for the prior two seasons were closed based on low abundance and particularly low abundance of mature-sized female crabs,” said Mark Stichert, the state department’s ground fish and shellfish management coordinator,

“Based on survey results from this year, those numbers have improved, some signs of modest optimism in terms of improving abundance in Bristol Bay red king crab overall and that has allowed for a small but still conservative fishery for 2023 as the total population size is still quite low,” he said.

The reopening of the red king crab fishery was welcome news for fishers.

“We're really happy they're opening up the king crab season, it'll bring some much needed relief,” said Gabriel Prout, a third-generation fisher and president of the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, a nonprofit trade association.

But Prout expects fewer boats to participate in this season's crab fishery. Difficulty in finding crew members and having enough money to maintain boats may limit the number of vessels participating this season, he added.

The estimates of spawning crab and the number of mature female red king crab were above thresholds required to open the fishery in Bristol Bay, according to analysis of surveys by both the