SE Alaska Commercial Red, Blue King Crab Fishery Closed for 2024-25

Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists have closed the Southeast Alaska commercial red king crab and blue king crab fishery again, this time for the 2024-2025 season. It has been closed since 2017.

ADF&G announced Sept. 9 that the 2024 stock assessment survey estimated 117,103 pounds of legal male red king crab were available for harvest, compared to the minimum threshold of 200,000 pounds required to open the commercial fishery.

The Southeast Alaska Red King Crab Management Plan calls for the department to manage the red king crab fishery in accordance with the Alaska Board of Fisheries Policy on King and Tanner Crab Resource Management.

The Southeast red king crab regional biomass estimates for the coming season are 1.63 million pounds of legal male crab and 2.47 million pounds of mature male crab, with four of the seven survey areas having increases in either legal or mature biomass.

The regional legal male biomass did increase by 18% and mature male biomass increased by 24% from the previous year. Regional biomass is estimated from the seven surveyed areas and extrapolated to the entire region.

Still, five of the seven survey areas had stock health ratings of poor or below average, according to ADF&G biologists.