Bering Sea fisheries for 5.6 million pounds of snow crab and 1.1 million pounds for Tanners open today/October 15 but little action typically occurs until January. That could change with the huge demand for crab combined with the cancellation of the Bristol Bay red king crab fishery.
Golden king crab has been ongoing along the Aleutian Islands since August with a quota of about 6 million pounds.
It’s hard to believe, but Dungeness is now Alaska’s largest crab fishery. Combined catches so far this year for Southeast, Kodiak, Chignik and the Alaska Peninsula total just under 10 million pounds with several weeks to go.
A herring food and bait fishery opened October 1 near Craig and Klawok in Southeast. The harvest guideline has not been announced yet; the most recent take was over 11, 000 tons.
Southeast’s spot shrimp fishery wrapped up with a catch of 457,300 pounds. Beam trawlers are still targeting 650,000 pounds of northern pink shrimp in two districts.
Southeast’s sea cucumber dive fishery opened on October 4 with a catch limit of 1,872,800 pounds. Diving is still ongoing for geoduck clams.
Sea cuke fisheries also are underway at Kodiak (120,000 pounds), Chignik (15,000 pounds) and the South Peninsula (20,000 pounds).
Halibut catches have topped 15 million pounds, with about 3.5 million pounds left to go. Homer, Seward and Kodiak are the top ports for landings.
For sablefish, 60% of the 43.4 million pound quota has been taken. Seward, Sitka and Kodiak are getting the most deliveries. Both fisheries are open until December 7.
Fishing continues for pollock, cod, flounders and many other species in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea.
Preliminary numbers for Alaska’s 2021 salmon catch total nearly 222 million fish, 32 million more than projected. Fish and Game will provide breakdowns and values by region any day.
Finally, the Board of Fisheries work session meets via Zoom on October 20-21. The Board will take up Prince William Sound fish issues starting at the end of November.
