Fall dungeness will get full-length season

(Alaska Department of Fish and Game photo)

By Orin Pierson

Petersburg Pilot

Fisheries managers cut short this summer’s Southeast Alaska commercial dungeness crab season by six days because initial harvest projections fell below the required threshold for a full season. But now, after determining that a high number of soft-shelled crabs contributed to low harvest projections, managers have opted to open fall dungeness fishing for its full length.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Monday that the fall dungeness crab season in Southeast Alaska will proceed for its standard duration, reversing what could have been a 50% reduction in fishing time for most of the region.

This week’s decision hinged on an analysis of soft shell crabs – newly molted crabs with shells too soft for market – that fishermen encountered during the first week of the summer season in June.

“We determined that about 11% of the legal size crab that were caught were too soft to bring in,” said Joe Stratman, Region I Shellfish Biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. “When we added that soft crab poundage back into the model, we reached an estimate of over 2.25 million pounds.”

The summer season, which began June 15, was initially projected to produce 2.21 million pounds of crab – 40,000 pounds short of the 2.25 million pound threshold needed to avoid management restrictions under the Southeast Alaska Dungeness Crab Management Plan.

The shortfall triggered the early closure of the summer season on August 9. This year marks only the fourth time harvest projections have fallen below that threshold, since the management plan was implemented 25 years ago.

However, port sampling, fish tickets, and interviews with permit holders who fished during the first week revealed that fishermen were leaving significantly more soft-shell crab on the grounds than in previous years.

“The year before, soft crab was more like people were leaving about 5% on the grounds – it was 11% this year,” Stratman explained during a recent interview with the Pilot. “We took that above-average amount of crab, the difference between 5% and 11%, and plugged that back into the model.”

“Some years there’s very little soft crab that’s caught in the fishery,” Stratman explained that in the past decade, the percentage of legal-size crab left on the grounds due to soft shells has ranged from 3% to 28%.

Dungeness crabs molt annually when approaching legal harvest size, with males molting from February through early July and females molting in August and September when mating occurs. After molting, crabs require time to harden their shells before becoming marketable.

Several factors can influence molting timing and shell hardening, including water temperature, salinity and competition for resources among crab populations.

The geographic distribution of soft shell crab also varies significantly within the region. While some areas like the south end of the Stikine River reported few soft shell encounters, other locations such as Seymour Canal reported more soft shell presence.

The decision to provide the full fall crabbing opportunity offers some clarity for Southeast Alaska’s dungeness crab fleet.

Many of the area’s fishermen rely on multiple fisheries throughout the year, and there are some competing fall fisheries starting on Oct. 1 that some fishermen must choose between.

When harvest projections fall within the 1.5 to 2.25 million pound range due to soft-shelled crabs not retained early in the season, regulations say the department may authorize a full fall season rather than the reduced 30-day season that would otherwise apply.

The fall season decision represents the third time since 2000 that managers have used the soft shell provision to authorize full fall fishing, with similar decisions in the 2013/14 and 2022/23 seasons.

The department will issue an additional announcement before the fall season opens, reminding fishermen of closed areas including waters around Metlakatla and areas closed by the Board of Fisheries in 2022.

Without the soft shell provision being applied to this year’s under threshold projection, all areas would have been limited to 30 days of fall fishing. Instead, the region’s different districts will get their standard durations under regulation – some areas open for two months and others for four months.

• This article was originally published by the Petersburg Pilot.