Fall Alaska king crab harvest canceled (Metlakatla: live, restaurant, vacation)

[orbiter]

I still have not seen the ads on king crabs yet from the supermarkets or the restaurants here in British Columbia.
Normally our local online grocery chatroom would be the first to know, such as in early March a local supermarket (Sungiven) advertised russian king crabs caught in Alaska at special rate.

[ketchikanite]

Originally Posted by Scooby Snacks

This. People moaning about the livelihood of crab fishermen are being shortsighted. The state of Alaska is protecting the well being of crabs and the fishermen long term. I went to Dutch Harbor early 2022 for a work trip and it was very quiet out there without crab boat operations. But there is plenty of other fishing to be had, and Alaska has tons of other jobs in travel and tourism, healthcare, oil, manufacturing, etc. . . Shortstaffing is as bad up there as everywhere else.

Jobs in tourism don’t even pay half of what a crab fisherman makes. And those displaced fisherman aren’t going to be getting jobs in the healthcare industry.

[MKTwet]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

Most of those making money off Alaska crab (or groundfish), for that matter) are not Alaska residents.

King crab is overfished. Quotas have been too high for decades, and they continued to allow boats to sell their quotas to other boats...shouldn't have done that.

Snow crab populations decreased so quickly that trying to blame it on overfishing is...convenient, I guess, but not realistic. They've likely moved farther north.

It's also not all that easy to just go fish for something else. Like I already said, a crab boat going for groundfish is going to pay more in fuel than they'll earn from their catch. And then there's a matter of permits and other red tape. You can't just decide that your boat that was specifically built and designed for Bering Sea crabbing is now a salmon seiner.

When you have franchises across America that offers snow and king crab on steam bags then you know the demand will cause overfishing. It's no longer a delicacy when there's different price points for snow and king crab.

[Northrick]

Originally Posted by orbiter

I still have not seen the ads on king crabs yet from the supermarkets or the restaurants here in British Columbia.
Normally our local online grocery chatroom would be the first to know, such as in early March a local supermarket (Sungiven) advertised russian king crabs caught in Alaska at special rate.

In order of size (and in my opinion, taste) there's golden king crab, red king crab, and blue king crab. Whether it's Russian crab or Alaskan crab is just a matter of which side of the Bering Sea it was caught.

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by MKTwet

When you have franchises across America that offers snow and king crab on steam bags then you know the demand will cause overfishing. It's no longer a delicacy when there's different price points for snow and king crab.

The point was the snow crab population declined so quickly within such a short period of time that overfishing couldn't account for it.

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by ketchikanite

Jobs in tourism don’t even pay half of what a crab fisherman makes. And those displaced fisherman aren’t going to be getting jobs in the healthcare industry.

Not to mention that manufacturing basically doesn't exist in Alaska, as that person claimed.

Nonetheless, where it's really going to hurt Alaskans isn't in the loss of jobs; it's in tax revenue. Over half of the fisheries business and landing taxes are distributed at the community and borough level. That's millions of dollars that will no longer be available. It will be interesting to see how Dumleavy tries to tap dance around that.

The numbers for snow crab have been really good in recent years (record levels for juvenile crab, from what I've heard), which pretty much rules out overfishing or bottom trawling as being the culprit involved in their disappearance. I thought they may have moved; crab populations have historically done that, but Alaska biologist Miranda Westphal seems to think everything points to a mass mortality event. The worst-case and increasingly likely scenario is that the young snow crab all starved to death.

In summer, many small snow crab make their habitat in a cold pool that forms on the Bering seafloor. In recent years, which have been dominated by warmer waters and less sea ice, these cold pools have been smaller, concentrating crab into tight quarters.

“They couldn’t deal with it. They couldn’t find enough food. They couldn’t move to colder waters,” Westphal said. “The most plausible explanation is probably starvation.”

Fishing crews have had to push farther north in recent years to harvest snow crab.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/14/alas...ic-driver.html

Just as well that I'm allergic to shellfish.

[orbiter]

Originally Posted by Northrick

In order of size (and in my opinion, taste) there's golden king crab, red king crab, and blue king crab. Whether it's Russian crab or Alaskan crab is just a matter of which side of the Bering Sea it was caught.

Good one. Thanks.
I live in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia. It's kind of confusing when the advertisement stated "Russian" king crabs caught in Alaska.

Friends who vacationed in South Korea, reported cheap and abundant Russian king crabs there.
Apparently, seafoods are spared from the economic sanctions.
However, I suspect that Canada has stopped all import of seafoods from there some months ago.
Because now the restaurants labelled those king crabs as "Chilean".

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by Arktikos

Sad news. I believe the Costco King crab comes from Russia.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by orbiter

Good one. Thanks.
I live in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia. It's kind of confusing when the advertisement stated "Russian" king crabs caught in Alaska.

Friends who vacationed in South Korea, reported cheap and abundant Russian king crabs there.
Apparently, seafoods are spared from the economic sanctions.
However, I suspect that Canada has stopped all import of seafoods from there some months ago.
Because now the restaurants labelled those king crabs as "Chilean".

What do you mean, "those" king crabs? What king crabs? The Russian ones?? I"m not following.

BTW, all Pacific salmon species come from Russia. Do we have to boycott the salmon, too?

[ketchikanite]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

What do you mean, "those" king crabs? What king crabs? The Russian ones?? I"m not following.

BTW, all Pacific salmon species come from Russia. Do we have to boycott the salmon, too?

Do you not understand the life cycle of a salmon? They return to the same stream they are hatched in. After they return to that same stream they spawn and then they die. So they can be Russian, Canadian or Alaskan salmon, etc.