Fish Factor
$8.10 per pound!
That’s the jaw-dropping advance price being paid to Kodiak fishermen for Tanner crab in the fishery that opened on January 15. High crab prices have led all other seafoods during the COVID-19 pandemic as buyers grab all they can to fill demand at buffet tables, restaurants and retail counters around the world. “Our strategy was to get a price before the season even started. It's simply bad business to go fishing without a price,” said Peter Longrich, secretary of the 74 member Kodiak Crab Alliance Cooperative which negotiated the deal with local processors.
Crabbers will drop pots for a combined total of 1.8 million pounds with 1.1 million pounds earmarked for Kodiak, 500,000 pounds for the South Peninsula and 200,000 pounds at Chignik.
The price compares to $4.25/lb paid in 2020 for a 400,000 pound harvest and $4.40/lb in 2019 for 615,000 pounds. No Tanner fishery occurred in 2021 as crabbers waited for more mature male crabs to grow into the fishery, the only ones that can be retained for sale. The legal crabs weigh over two pounds on average.
The waiting paid off.
Local biologists have been tracking one of the largest cohorts of Tanners ever seen since 2018 throughout the westward region. It appears to be two big year classes with a broad range of sizes that could support several years of fishing, said
Nat Nichols, area manager for the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game at Kodiak.
“A Tanner crab is getting to be legal size around age four or five, and then they start to die of natural causes or age out of the population by around seven or eight. Once they start to become legal, we can expect them to hang around for potentially three years, and there'll be more small crab behind them. So you can kind of think of this as the front edge,” Nichols said.
Fishing is expected to go fast depending on three factors: the number of boats, good or scratchy hauls and weather. A total of 85 boats were signed up for the fishery at Kodiak, 47 at the South Peninsula and 14 at Chignik. Nichols said the opener could be as short as three days or it might last about a week.
Crabbers can expect a lot of measuring, he said, adding that a large group of crab are going to be “just short of the stick this year.”
“Those are next year's crabs and we want to handle them carefully and get them back in the water,” he said. “There will be a lot of sorting and if a pot has 30 or 40 legal male keepers in it, it may have 300 or 400 sub-legal males and females mixed in there.”
The webbing in the pots also will add to the workload. “If you have a groundfish pot that’s converted to a Tanner pot and it’s got small, three inch web or something like that, the only way for non-target crab to get out is to find one of the four escape rings. So that pot is likely to have quite a bit of juvenile and female crab in it,” Nichols explained. “If you have a pot with web that’s really big mesh, a lot of that small crab is going to walk right through and you’ll end up with a pot that's a lot cleaner.”
Another factor is how long the pots are soaked.
“If you're turning the pots twice a day, you're not really giving the crab enough time to filter out of the escape mechanisms. Whereas if you only pull it once a day, potentially crab have up to 24 hours to find one of those rings and get out of the pot. Cleaner fishing is better for everyone and those escaped crab are for the next few years of fishing. It’s the future of the resource.” Nichols added.
All pots in Alaska also are re
Arrests
A total of 21 arrests made with 21 (100%) alcohol related.
Tuesday, January 11, 2022
Charges: Assault in the fourth degree, Violating Conditions of Release (VCOR). Name: Frank Miller. Location: Front Street.
Wednesday, January 12, 2022
Charges: Criminal trespass in second degree; five counts of VCOR; Warrant Arrest. Name: Woodrow Malewotkuk. Location: Front St.
Charges: Sexual assault in the first degree DV, Assault
in the third degree, DV. Name: Archie Adams. Location: Gas Lamp Rd.
Friday, January 14, 2021
Charges: False information, Criminal trespass second degree; VCOR. Name: Thomas Ahkpuk. Location: Front St.
Charge: Criminal trespass second degree. Name: Victoria Campbell. Location: Front St.
Charge: Assault in the fourth degree. Name: Lucinda Toolie. Location: Front St.
Saturday, January 15, 2021
Charges: Assault fourth degree, DV. Name: Harry Goldsberry. Location: E. 3rd Ave.
Charge: Probation violation. Name: Garrett Oozevaseuk. Location: E. 4th Ave.
Sunday, January 16, 2022
Charge: Criminal mischief fourth degree, DV. Name: Briar Dickson. Location: Warren Pl. Charge: VCOR. Name: Mary Lockwood. Location: E 4th Ave.
Traffic
Five traffic stops were conducted during this reporting period with four warnings issued. NPD responded to three reports of motor vehicle accidents.
Disclaimer: This is a record of activity. The issuance of citations or the act of arrest does not assign guilt to any identified party.