Alaska's one-boat state crab fishery reopens as offshore quota rises

Alaska's state-waters golden king crab fishery in the Aleutians reopens for the 2026-27 season, a fishery so lightly used that just one boat fished it last season, state managers reported, taking only a limited harvest.

Each boat is capped at no more than 90 pots, carved out of a 400-pot fleet ceiling divided among whatever boats registered by Aug. 1 — the more boats that sign up, the fewer pots each gets. The state hasn't said how many registered or what the per-boat limit turned out to be. Only boats 58 feet and under, fishing east of 169 degrees west, qualify. The Board of Fisheries set the 400-pot cap and a 50,000-pound harvest limit in March 2025.

That 50,000 pounds is tiny next to the fishery beside it. The larger Aleutian golden king crab operation offshore — the "rationalized" fishery — carries a 2026-27 catch limit of about 4.7 million pounds, up 13% from the year before.