Crab Scientists Plan More Direct Research, Tagging This Year
Two research scientists with extensive backgrounds in crab fisheries said last week that they’re bent on unlocking new information in the coming months to help better track the future for Alaska king crab and snow crab fisheries currently foundering in a multi-million-dollar collapse.
Research plans for 2023 call for a range of activities from satellite tagging at density centers to pot lifts and more collaboration with the crab industry, said Scott Goodman, executive director of the Bering Sea Fisheries Research Foundation (BSFRF), and president of Natural Resources Consultants in Seattle.
The volatile Bering Sea crab fisheries, with a history of highs and lows, are currently for the most part in collapse.
They peaked with a 130-million-pound red king crab harvest in 1980, then close...