Kodiak, Chignik and South Peninsula Tanner crab fisheries stay closed for 2027

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game will keep commercial Tanner crab fishing closed in the Kodiak, Chignik and South Peninsula districts for the 2027 season. The department announced the closures Nov. 2 after its 2026 survey results showed no district or section had enough surplus crab to support the minimum harvest set in state regulation. That rules out the Jan. 15 to March 31 season the regulations otherwise set.

The decision turns on two bars. The number of mature male crab must meet a threshold, and the surplus above that threshold must support a minimum guideline harvest level, the department's harvest target: 100,000 pounds per section in Kodiak and 200,000 pounds in Chignik and in each South Peninsula section. Most of the closed waters cleared the first bar and missed the second.

In the Kodiak District, the Southeast, Southwest, Westside and North Mainland sections met their abundance thresholds, but none could support the 100,000-pound minimum harvest. The district's two other sections with thresholds fell short of them. The Chignik District met its threshold but missed the 200,000-pound minimum. In the South Peninsula District, the Eastern Section met its threshold and missed the minimum, while the Western Section fell short of the threshold itself.

It is a second straight closed year for Kodiak and the South Peninsula. Both fished in 2025, in Kodiak's Eastside and Southeast sections and the South Peninsula's Eastern Section, before the department closed them for 2026, according to its 2026 announcement. Chignik and the South Peninsula's Western Section were closed in 2025 as well. Chignik has had no commercial Tanner crab season since 2023, after its 2023 and 2024 surveys both came in below its mature-male threshold.

Department records show what these districts produce when open. In 2023, Kodiak landed about 5.9 million pounds of Tanner crab worth roughly $19.6 million, Chignik landed 395,859 pounds and the South Peninsula landed about 1.15 million pounds, according to the 2023 annual management report.

Separately, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in June sent proposed Tanner crab protections off Kodiak back for a second initial review, choosing restrictions on non-pelagic trawl gear as a preliminary preferred option while keeping closure options open for further analysis.