Council sends Kodiak Tanner crab closure to second initial review with preliminary preferred alternative

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council voted without objection Sunday to advance Gulf of Alaska Tanner crab protection measures to a second initial review, selecting a preliminary preferred alternative for gear type under Alternative 2 — non-pelagic trawl — while retaining multiple closure-area and duration options for further analysis rather than moving the item to final action. The council followed the Scientific and Statistical Committee's recommendation for additional analysis on displacement, performance metrics, and closure design. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has already closed the Kodiak District commercial Tanner crab season for 2026 because the 2025 survey showed abundance below regulatory thresholds, and that closure sharpened every exchange.

Bycatch at the Center

Crab fishermen and conservation groups put bycatch numbers at the center of their case. Duncan Fields, representing community quota entities in Old Harbor and Ouzinkie, said trawl gear has taken between 1 and 2 million Tanner crab annually in recent years, averaging 6 million over 14 years. "The amount of crab that are taken annually by bycatch, some— somewhere between 1 and 2 million crab in the last few years, an average of 6 million crab over the last 14 years. But let's focus on the last few years, the 1.2, 1.5, 2 million crab annually, 15, 20% of the known biomass in the common area every year as crab mortality or crab bycatch. Those are significant numbers." Oceana representative Lauren Hynes argued: "The directed crab fishery is closed for the— closed for 2026 because its population cannot sustain harvest. Yet the flatfish trawl fleet has no equivalent protection and continues to operate year-round in the same habitat."

Trawl Industry and Tribal Objections

Trawl operators countered that the custom box represents a significant share of some vessels' annual income and that removing predator fish benefits crab populations. Matt Rohde, captain of a Kodiak trawler, said his vessel's pollock, cod, and flatfish fishery keeps predators from decimating crab biomass. The Kodiak Island Tribal Coalition, representing all 10 tribes of the Kodiak Archipelago, urged the council to move to final action and keep Marmot Bay excluded from any reconsideration. Coalition representative Natasha Hayden told the council that tribes were not involved in drafting the Advisory Panel motion despite being told the process was inclusive, and that reopening Marmot Bay is unacceptable to the communities of Ouzinkie and Port Lions. Hayden noted that nearly 18 years had passed since the issue was first raised in 2008.

What the Council Did

The motion, introduced by council member Baker and seconded by Vanderhoeven, passed without objection. It selected non-pelagic trawl gear as the preliminary preferred alternative under Element 3 of Alternative 2, while retaining multiple options for closure area and duration — including the custom box, the ADF&G statistical area, and a new surgical option — for analysis in the next initial review. New elements were added establishing a 5- to 7-year review timeline and performance metrics including changes in Tanner crab prohibited species catch levels, trends in mature female and male survey abundance, and redistribution of groundfish effort. The council retained a narrowed Alternative 3 covering removal of never-triggered Type 3 closure areas, potential partial modification of the Marmot Flats closure, and regulatory simplification to address conflicts between pelagic and non-pelagic gear requirements. A major point of dispute throughout testimony was whether Alternative 3 should be bifurcated from Alternative 2; many crab fishermen and tribal representatives argued the review of existing closures distracted from Tanner crab protection, while trawl operators and their associations argued the two should remain linked. The council did not bifurcate but narrowed Alternative 3 significantly from the Advisory Panel's version.

What the motion carries forward

The preliminary preferred alternative identifies a new closure area on Kodiak's east side, combining elements of two options the Advisory Panel advanced, and keeps a narrowed review of existing closures that includes a possible partial reopening of the Marmot Flats area as a test case. The motion also carries forward, for further analysis, five- and seven-year post-implementation reviews with performance metrics tracking prohibited species catch, survey abundance, and where displaced groundfish effort moves. The council member who introduced the motion stressed that the council is not bound by the preliminary preferred alternative when the analysis returns, and noted the council has been working to close the gap between the crab and trawl rules since at least 2008.

The measure reached the council after the Advisory Panel voted 14 to 0, with one abstention, to recommend a second review and added five boundary options drawn by the Alaska Whitefish Trawlers Association, the Midwater Trawlers Cooperative, and the Tanner crab fleet. Council staff cautioned that a closure could push fishing into an adjacent area to the southwest that carries a higher Tanner crab bycatch rate, meaning the conservation benefit would depend on how much effort moves and where. The east side of Kodiak holds the district's highest density of Tanner crab.