Southeast Dungeness fall season cut to 30 days after harvest missed threshold

Southeast Alaska's Dungeness fleet gets 30 days this fall, from 8 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, to 11:59 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31, in Registration Area A (Southeast Alaska). Regulations otherwise run to Nov. 30 in most of the area, and Feb. 28 in Districts 1 and 2.

The summer season closed July 25 after 40 days, three weeks short of the maximum, under emergency order EO 1C5426. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game projected a harvest between 1.5 million and 2.25 million pounds. The July advisory left the fall length undecided pending a review of fishery performance data.

The department set the fall length under the Southeastern Alaska Dungeness Crab Management Plan. Port sampling showed the share of legal-size male soft-shelled crab, recently molted, discarded in the first week of summer ran above the previous three-year average. The fishery failed to meet that 2.25 million-pound threshold, the department said in its Aug. 7 advisory, which carries EO 1C5626, but the soft-shell rate was not a contributing factor.

Managers rely on such fishery-dependent data because Southeast Dungeness crab has no active independent stock assessment program. The fishery averaged $11.2 million in exvessel value, the dockside price paid to boats, from 2019/20 through 2023/24, its management report says.

On Aug. 25 the Wrangell Assembly, in Resolution 08-26-2071, declared a local disaster and asked Gov. Mike Dunleavy to seek a federal fishery disaster determination for its more than 60 permit holders.

Closed waters remain at Shinaku Inlet, Whale Pass and Natzuhini Bay, plus Glacier Bay by federal rule and the Annette Islands Reserve. Report lost pots to the nearest Alaska Wildlife Troopers office. Region I Shellfish Biologist Joe Stratman is reachable at (907) 772-5238.