Norton Sound red king crab catch topped its 2026 cap but not the overfishing limit

Norton Sound red king crab fishing killed 338,628 pounds of crab in 2026, 13.6% over the 298,000-pound acceptable biological catch, a cap on total mortality, according to a state assessment headed to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council's Crab Plan Team on Thursday, Nov. 5. The total stayed under the 426,000-pound overfishing limit, meaning overfishing did not occur, the report says.

Caitlin Stern and Katie Palof of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game wrote the assessment. The total counts crab kept by commercial and subsistence fishers plus an estimated 10,585 pounds of crab that died after being thrown back. Discards are estimated because no observers were aboard boats in the fishery this year.

Commercial fishers kept about 313,000 pounds, nearly all of it in summer, beating the state's 268,000-pound guideline harvest level by 16.8%. The report ties part of that overage to catch at the end of the 10-day summer season, between the department's June 23 closure announcement and the closure at noon June 25, that outran projections. The department's closure notice had expected the fleet to take the rest of the guideline by then.

The crab were big. Average weight in the summer fishery was 3.7 pounds, the highest on record, and 34% of the retained catch fell in the largest size class, also a record.

Stern and Palof recommend cutting the 2027 acceptable biological catch to 0.221 million pounds, about 26% lower, while keeping a 30% uncertainty buffer built into the calculation. If adopted, the change would lower next season's mortality ceiling, a cut Alaska News reported Oct. 29.

The Crab Plan Team gives the council scientific advice and management recommendations on crab. Stern is scheduled to present the final report at 8:45 am at the team's virtual meeting.