Despite concerns, Bristol Bay fishermen reach king crab quota in a jiffy

It was fast and furious for Alaska's premier crab fishery with the fleet catching the nearly 8 million pound Bristol Bay red king crab quota in less than three weeks.

The overall take was down 15 percent from 2015 and will likely fetch record prices when sales are made.

"The only price we have is an advance price so fishermen can pay fuel, bait and other trip expenses. The final price will be determined from now to January," said Jake Jacobsen, executive director of the Inter-Cooperative Exchange, which represents 70 percent of the Bering Sea crab harvesters.

Crabbers fetched an average price of $8.18 per pound for their king crab last year; the fishery was valued at more than $81 million at the docks.

Since the fishery began Oct. 15, hauls have averaged 37.4 red kings per pot, compared to 32 last year, Jacobsen said. Some boats were catching 60 to 70 crab per pot, even as the fishery was coming to a close.

That's where the furious comes in — crabbers believe there are more crab on the grounds than were revealed in the summer survey used to set catch quotas.

"It's not one of those things where we don't think the crab is there, it's a result of the survey not being able to find them," said Ruth Christiansen, science advisor and policy analyst for the trade group, Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers.

Jacobsen agreed, saying: "Fishermen were very pleased with the good fishing and at the same time furious that the catch could be so low when the resource is more abundant than they've seen in many a year."

He added that they also saw high numbers of female and undersized crab, which bodes well for next year. Only legal-sized males can be kept for sale.

The Bering Sea crab fisheries are comanaged by the state and the federal governments. Federal biologists conduct the annual summer surveys and calculate the catch quotas; the Alaska Department of Fish and Game manages the crab fisheries in-season.

Trump stance on trade worries some

What might the election of Donald Trump mean for the seafood industry? Economic reports already are pointing to his platform of opposing trade and pulling out of the North America Free Trade Agreement, a stance that goes against more than 30 years of American policy under presidents from both parties.

NAFTA connects trade between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, and Trump has pledged to impose trade barriers that could reduce markets for seafood and other U.S. exports while driving up the cost of imports, causing banks to restrict lending, according to The New York Times.

It also is a foregone conclusion he will tank the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership. If Trump actually implements trade protectionist policies, some global economists believe it could tip the economy into a recession.

Trump also has vowed to place a 45 percent tariff on Chinese imports and declare China a currency manipulator on his first day in office. How this will affect the millions of pounds of Alaska seafood sent to China for reprocessing and then shipped back to the U.S. is anyone's guess.

The Wall Street Journal said Trump's victory could begin "an era of U.S. combativeness" with two of our biggest trade partners — China and Mexico — prompting trade wars that stall international growth.

Tom Sunderland, vice president of marketing and communications at Ocean Beauty Seafood, agrees.

"But it's far too early to speculate on what any of this might mean. We will just have to wait and see, and deal with any changes as they come, he said."

While Trump's positions might not pose any direct changes for U.S. fisheries, his vision to "explode fossil fuel development across the nation, including coal" could have an impact on our oceans.

Trump has called for gutting the Environmental Protection Agency and may name a top climate skeptic, Myron Ebell, to lead the charge. Trump has vowed to cancel payments for the Paris global warming accord signed by nearly 200 nations, which sets emissions targets to blunt the worst effects of global warming.

The magazine Scientific American reports Ebell has called President Obama's Clean Power Plan for greenhouse gasses "illegal" and boasts he has been dubbed a "climate criminal" by Greenpeace.

Cancer and seafood

A campaign to raise money for cancer research has been relaunched by Orca Bay Seafoods and the fishing industry. The effort began in 2006 when Orca Bay Vice President Trish Haaker was diagnosed with breast cancer, and since then more than $40,000 has been raised for research. The company now has enlarged its mission.

"We are adding the nutrition messages of seafood and its health benefits, and how it can help during cancer treatments and lead to an overall healthier lifestyle," said Lilani Estacio, Orca Bay's marketing and communications Manager.

All proceeds go to City of Hope, a global leader in cancer research, along with diabetes, heart disease and HIV.

"We have a product that benefits not just the livelihood of many, but everyone," Estacio said.

Learn how you can donate at Sea a Cure on Facebook.

Laine Welch is a Kodiak-based commercial fishing columnist. Contact her at msfish@alaskan.com.