NOAA invites tribes to consult on Norton Sound crab and groundfish catch limits

NOAA Fisheries on Friday invited tribal governments and Alaska Native corporations to consult on Norton Sound red king crab catch limits and on Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska groundfish specifications. All are on the agenda for the North Pacific Fishery Management Council's November/December meeting. The agency said tribes may also seek consultation on any council or federal action they consider to have tribal implications.

Norton Sound red king crab limits are set apart from the other Bering Sea crab stocks, whose limits the council set in October. Katie Palof of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game told the council in June that the Norton Sound assessment runs off-cycle because the fishery opens in early February, so final specifications come in November, when later data are available.

For 2026, the council set an overfishing limit of 193 metric tons and an acceptable biological catch of 135 metric tons, or 298,000 pounds, down from 284 and 199 metric tons in 2025, according to its December 2025 and December 2024 newsletters. The acceptable biological catch is set below the overfishing limit to account for scientific uncertainty.

The 2026 assessment put mature male biomass at 1,560 metric tons, below the 2,000-ton proxy for biomass at maximum sustainable yield.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game says the 298,000 pounds covers subsistence, commercial and incidental mortality, with a 268,000-pound commercial guideline harvest level. This year's winter open-access fishery took about 17,700 pounds. Summer fishing took about 297,000 pounds, 111% of the combined summer quota, worth $3.5 million.