Alaska News

In Kodiak, moving Kulluk can wait until Tanner crab season ends

Wednesday at noon, Kodiak Island fishermen will drop their pots into the water of outer Kiliuda Bay, hoping to bag part of this year's 660,000 pound-quota of Tanner crab. Farther into the bay sits Royal Dutch Shell's troubled drill rig Kulluk, still waiting for the results of a hull assessment following its New Year's Eve grounding on the nearby Sitkalidak Island.

According to the Unified Command -- a collection of agencies handling the response to the grounding of the Kulluk on Sitkalidak Island south of Kodiak on New Year's Eve -- the Kulluk will remain there until the Tanner crab fishery season ends. That could take mere days, as local fishermen say this year's quota is a bit smaller than in years past.

Still unknown is the result of that hull assessment. Unified Command spokeswoman Rochelle Touchard said that the results of a hull analysis are still being scrutinized and there was no timeline for when they might be completed.

That means crab fishermen in the area may have to deal with increased ship traffic going to and from the city of Kodiak to the Kulluk in Kiliuda Bay, located southwest of the island's namesake city.

The bad news? The Kulluk is in an area that would normally be a popular spot for crabbers to drop their pots. The good news? That area was already closed to crabbing this year after a survey of the area revealed the area might not have enough harvestable crab anyway. Tanner crabs, which can reach 4 pounds, are caught in crab pots similar to those used for king crab.

"Normally (inner Kiliuda Bay) is open, but they saw a large number of small crabs this year, and not many legal males," said Oliver Holm, a Kodiak fisherman and member of the Kodiak Fish and Game advisory committee. "So it's off limits anyway, but the outer portion of Kiliuda (Bay) is still open. I suspect there will be a fair number in there."

Holm was waiting for bait before setting out later Tuesday evening toward his fishing area in the eastern part of Kodiak Island. He said that Shell has been mostly proactive when dealing with the impending Tanner crab opening, which was supposed to take place Tuesday but was delayed 24 hours due to weather.

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Holm said that Shell has an on-scene coordinator that fishermen can reach through VHF, but the vessels dedicated to the Shell effort have mostly stayed in the portion of the bay off limits to crabbing.

"It shouldn't be too bad," he said. "If they suddenly decided to pull out of there because they got the okay and wanted to get ready for the drilling season next year, that might be different. But I don't think they're going to do that."

‘Great sense of relief’

Theresa Peterson, Kodiak Outreach Coordinator for the Alaska Marine Conservation Council (AMCC), agreed that the Kulluk's location wasn't ideal, but with no fuel leaks detected from the rig and the inner bay closed to crabbing anyway, it was a manageable scenario.

More than 50 boats are registered for the Tanner crab fishery, but a couple are planning to devote at least part of their catch to the marine conservation council's Catch of the Season program, a "community-supported fishery" that delivers fresh seafood to subscribers in Anchorage and Homer. That program began with the Tanner crab catch in 2011.

Peterson -- whose children and husband were on their way out of the harbor aboard their boat Patricia Sue for the start of the season on Tuesday night -- said that there were a "couple of hundred" subscribers waiting for this year's Tanner crab haul. Among them is Orso restaurant in downtown Anchorage, which is teaming up with Alaska Marine Conservation Council for a Tanner Crab Soiree on Tuesday Jan. 29 that combines high-end chefs mixing with Kodiak fishermen beginning at 6 p.m.

The council has heard few concerns from customers about the Kulluk's impact on their orders. She said that fishermen had quickly approached Shell to let them know about the looming Tanner crab season opener.

"There has been concern, and fishermen have been going down and talking directly to Shell about it, making sure they're completely aware of this fishery and the Pacific cod fishery that's taking place," Peterson said. "Of course, the concern was that the fishery could be shut down. But ... since the rig has been moved and it isn't leaking, there's a great sense of relief among the community."

Plus, it helps that the inner bay was already closed to crabbing for the year. "It would've been a mess if it was supposed to be open," Peterson said. Unified Command has reported that a claims process has already been established for fishermen concerned that the Kulluk situation will negatively impact their crabbing season.

Unified Command spokeswoman Touchard said that Shell and the other agencies were prepared to accommodate the fishery in any way they could.

"Having a marine control on site to manage any vessel traffic, possibly implementing a no-wake zone, those are the type of things that would be to the benefit of the fishery," she said.

Hopefully, it will be a speedy, productive season for the Tanner crab fleet, and the next step for the Kulluk can happen sooner, rather than later.

Contact Ben Anderson at ben(at)alaskadispatch.com

Ben Anderson

Ben Anderson is a former writer and editor for Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2017.

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