The popular January Tanner crab fishery has been called off for the third year running throughout a region that includes Kodiak, Chignik and the southern Alaska Peninsula, leaving fishermen and managers wondering where all the crab has gone.
For several years, state managers have tracked a huge plug of crab that appeared poised to enter the 2016 Tanner crab fishery, but based on this summer's surveys, the crab have failed to materialize.
"In 2013 saw a very large cohort of juveniles in the survey estimated at over 200 million crab, which was one of the largest we've had going back to the early 1980s," said Mark Stichert, area fisheries biologist at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Kodiak. "We saw those crab again in 2014, and they were a year older and a year larger. However, there was a fairly significant decline to about 113 million crab. And then in 2015, unfortunately, that number dropped again significantly to just over 40 million total crab in the survey around the Kodiak area."
Stichert speculates the Tanner drop-off is due to increased predation by growing numbers of cod, pollock and flatfish in the Gulf of Alaska, along with environmental factors.
"We're seeing continued recruitment into the fishery, meaning juvenile and small crab generations are being spun off every year," he said. "We don't completely understand why those crab aren't maturing through the population to get to the legal size."
It takes about six years for Tanner crabs to grow to their mature, 2-pound size.
A fleet of 50 or more Kodiak boats and about 30 from Alaska Peninsula ports target Tanners. The mid-January fishery, which in past years has dwindled to about 1 million pounds, is usually worth several million dollars to fishermen.
"It's a bummer because the money is good and it's just downright fun to catch local crab," said Tyler O'Brien, a Kodiak fisherman. "I understand why we need to stand down another year, but I just hope they are able to do good surveys with the tight budget situation."
By the by, Tanner crab is spelled with a capitol T because it is named after discoverer Zera Luther Tanner, commander of the research vessel Albatross, which explored Alaska waters in the late 1800s.
Pacific partnership will cut tariffs
Details are just now coming to light on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, (https://ustr.gov/tpp/) which includes a dozen countries. One thing is clear -- Alaska seafood will net a big benefit from the trade pact signed last month.
Supporters claim it will create a powerful economic bloc with reduced trade barriers for all kinds of goods and data, including lowered or zeroed-out tariffs, the taxes on imports that make them more expensive for consumers.
For pollock surimi products and pollock roe going to Japan, for example, tariffs of 4.2 percent on both would immediately go to zero when the agreement goes into effect, said Ron Rogness, a spokesman for American Seafoods, whose fleet fishes for pollock in the Bering Sea.
Rogness said the new agreement also will remove a bone of contention for pollock.
"It's been a point of contention for the U.S. industry that imports of warm-water surimi from Asian countries like Thailand have been coming in at a favorable rate of duty of 2 percent relative to our 4.2 percent. Given the fact that our fisheries are much more sustainably managed and there have been questionable labor practices in some of these Asian fisheries, it's been a sore spot that they've had a more favorable tax situation entering Japan," he explained.
The value of U.S. surimi exports to Japan last year was $67.7 million and $156.8 million for pollock roe.
"Multiply that by 0.042, and the combined tariffs equal $9.4 million," Rogness said.
Currently, the seafood tariffs across the partnership countries range from 3.5 to 11 percent. A chart from Intrafish, a seafood news media outlet, shows that the tax on sockeye salmon -- now at 3.5 percent -- would also be zeroed out immediately. For other salmon species, the import tax would be gradually reduced and eventually eliminated. Tariffs on king and snow crab, herring roe and frozen cod also would be removed immediately.
The partnership still has a long way to go. The trade deal must be ratified by each country, including the U.S., and it faces stiff opposition on several fronts. Rogness predicted approval will take at least two years.
Alaska fish
The Pacific halibut fishery ended for the year Nov. 7, with nearly the entire 17 million-pound Alaska catch limit taken by longliners. Halibut prices remained in the $6-7 range in most major ports since the fishery opened in March. Kodiak was poised to take the title of the No. 1 port for halibut landings from Homer by a few thousand pounds. The sablefish fishery also ends Nov. 7.
In other fisheries:
• Southeast Alaska's demersal shelf rockfish season opens Saturday Nov. 8 with an 88,000-pound quota. That fishery includes yelloweye, canary and five other kinds of rockfish.
• The Southeast dive fisheries for urchins, geoduck clams and sea cucumbers is going fast. Just 380,000 pounds remained in the nearly 1.5-million-pound sea cuke quota.
• Crabbers are still dropping pots for Dungeness and some regions remain open for big spot shrimp.
• Trollers continue targeting king salmon in the winter fishery, which has seen prices increase to $6.65 a pound.
• Pollock fishing in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska ended for the year on Nov. 1, while fishing continues for cod, flounder and other groundfish.
• The Bristol Bay red king crab fishery has been fast and phenomenal with nearly all of the 9 million-pound quota taken in less than three weeks. Sixty-five boats signed on for the fishery, with red king crab fetching $7 a pound, up 90 cents from last year. Bering Sea boats will likely switch to the bairdi Tanner crab fishery after the red king closure.
Looking ahead
• Fishery managers are calling for another big salmon run next summer to Bristol Bay of more than 46 million sockeyes, which would yield an expected catch of 31.2 million reds.
• The Board of Fisheries meets Nov. 30- Dec. 1 in Anchorage. The focus this cycle is on Alaska Peninsula, Chignik, Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea cod fisheries in state waters. Comments can be submitted through Nov. 19.
Laine Welch is a commercial fishing opinion columnist based in Kodiak.
Correction: In an earlier version of this column, Intrafish was described as a fish wholesaler due to an editing error. It is a seafood news media outlet.