Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crab Fisheries

The six 2009/2010 Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) king and Tanner crab fisheries are off and running.

 

 

Aleutian Islands Golden King Crab

The Aleutian Islands golden king crab fishery opened in mid-August 2009 and remains open through mid-May 2010. The fishery total allowable catch (TAC) is divided east and west of 174�� W longitude based on biological stock considerations; with 3.15 million pounds apportioned to the east and 2.83 million pounds apportioned to the western area.

 

 

The directed golden king crab fishery opened in 1981, and has remained open every year since then. Fishery management relies upon historical fishery performance and other information to set annual TAC levels.

 

Price of all king and Tanner crab is significantly correlated with size. Other than a small amount of crab entering the fresh and specialty markets, most king crab is processed and sold as frozen sections; with the largest size sections receiving the greatest price. Golden king crabs are relatively small and historically have a niche market in the foodservice and large box store sectors.

 

Industry trade press reports that one of the main foodservice providers dropped golden king crab and this may ���strand��� a substantial amount of product until alternate markets are found. Potential and/or actual market impacts on golden king crab and on other, small-size king crab markets are not yet known.

 

Bristol Bay Red King Crab

The 2009/2010 TAC for the Bristol Bay red king crab stock was set at 16 million pounds. While this year���s harvest will be significantly below the 1980 peak harvest of 129.9 million pounds, it is above the 10 year average (14.6 million pounds) for this stock and only somewhat lower than the past two seasons. The fishery opened on October 15th and will remain open through January 15, 2010 though most of the TAC is harvested in the first weeks of the fishery.

 

 

The red king crab fishery is managed for size, sex, and season; allowing harvests only on large males during the non-mating/molting periods. Management biologists utilize a stepped harvest strategy that provides for a low harvest rate (15%) of mature males but assures that only a maximum of 50% of the legal males are harvested. They have also refined their assessment models and up-graded the information that supports them, this has resulted in good precautionary management.

 

Such management is needed since the Bering Sea continues to experience changing ocean conditions: less ice cover, warmer bottom temperatures and continued large abundance of groundfish predators. Two cautionary notes; there has not been a strong recruitment observed during the past three years assessment survey; and female red crab abundance is shifting towards the southwestern portion of Bristol Bay. This creates some potential for bycatch of that population component by other gear types. On the other hand, this southwestern area is also a historically important female spawning site in the 1970���s when stocks were very robust.

 

As we have previously noted, Japan and the U.S. are the two primary markets for Alaska king crab. Alaska producers typically export about 80 percent of production, and the lion���s share of exports goes to Japan. The domestic market has been much smaller, but still-significant market destination for Alaska producers.

 

Russian crab has been the dominant competitor in both the U.S. and Japanese king crab market. These exports are a mixture of the Russian far east red and blue crab stocks (both legal and illegally landed crab) and the Barents Sea red king crab fishery which peaked in 2006 and 2007. Knowledgeable buyers indicate that it is impossible to determine how much crab will come out of Russia in any year. While the Russian Border Guard has made significant headway on curtailing illegal crab, it still generates substantial market impacts. Alaskan sellers and buyers are frustrated that there are no accurate import statistics for Russian crab. Illegal crab continues to slip through at the ports of landing. If enforcement becomes too stringent in one port, illegal landings shift to another Asian country for processing prior to entering Japan. Absent excessive Russian crab, and continuing low U.S. TACs, the Japanese and US market can absorb the current crab harvests, but at prices that more realistically match market demand.

 

Markets are generally stable now, but in 2008 there was an increase in price for king crab sold to Japan. The U.S. domestic market price had declined, reflecting the U.S. economic downturn, but this did not generate a reaction in the Japanese market. So in the early fall of 2008 when Russian red king crab exports were down, Alaskan red crab became more important to the Japanese markets. This was prior to the most obvious economic signals, and Japanese buyers locked in their U.S. sales contracts prior to the US financial market collapse. Had the Japanese market recognized earlier that the U.S. market for crab would weaken in the coming months; prices may have been substantially lower. This fall���s wholesale price is hovering around $9.00/lb.

 

Another factor affecting prices was the presence of Barents Sea red king crab in 2006 and 2007. These were exceptionally large sized crab, and large crab drive the market. Their market abundance also impacts lesser sized crab and species, a significant factor for Alaskan king crab prices. Then, in 2008 the amount of very large frozen crab sections in the U.S. and Japanese markets dropped as Barents sea landing declined. This bolstered the market for relatively large sized Alaskan king crab frozen sections, which now had less competition for premium large sections.

 

 

Bering Sea Snow Crab

Bering Sea Snow crab remains under a 10 year rebuilding plan initiated in 2000. Their biomass is above the minimum spawning stock threshold (MSST) but below the biomass level that would lead to maximum sustained yield (Bmsy). This means that the stock will not reach the rebuilt status proscribed in the rebuilding plan. Therefore the plan will need to be revised, and harvest limits are likely to be more restrictive during the next rebuilding period.

 

Still, harvests are allowed under the stock rebuilding plan. During this transition year between the old plan and the new plan, ADF&G has set the TAC at approximately 48 million pounds (divided 90/10 between IFQ and CDQ fisheries). The figure below indicates how TAC levels have increased the last three years of the rebuilding plan based on anticipated stock health. While the stock has not reached the benchmarks to be considered ���rebuilt���, its MSST is large enough that the stock is no longer considered ���overfished���.

 

 

While the opilio (snow) crab fishery opens by regulation on October 15th, 2009 and remains open until May 15th, 2010 in the Eastern Subdistrict and through May 31st, 2010 in the Western Subdistrict, fishing does not usually commence until after January. This is driven by biological issues (meat fill) and by the desired timing of market entry for the product.

 

Price for opilio is driven by many factors. First is the world supply on the market. Canada supplies from 55 to 60 % of the demand, while most of the remaining volume comes from Russia and the Alaska.

 

Sackton (2009) notes that 2010 Opilio price will be impacted by: (1) how much Canadian inventory remains from the previous season, (2) the amount of product that foodservices and restaurants will consume in a still volatile tourist and restaurant market during economic recession, as well as (3) the buying power of the Japanese.

 

Lastly, size and shell quality are important factors impacting Alaskan opilio marketability on Japanese trade. Japanese markets pay a premium for larger sized, clean shell opilio crab. While Canadian harvests include significant amounts of small opilio (less than 4 inch carapace width), Alaskan markets have focused on winter trade that sets a premium on large crab (greater than 4 inch carapace width) with clean shells. Many opilio stop molting and acquire barnacles and bryozoans that grow on their shell and make the shell ���dirty��� in appearance. Such crab will not meet the premium crab standard. So some years the percent of dirty shell is larger than others and in such years the wholesale price is degraded. Dirty shelled crab are processed to a different market where shell appearance is less important.

 

Closer to home, individual first wholesalers must deal with cost challenges to acquire product. There is a disproportionate impact from the new regulatory landings requirements. Some processors have a mix of northern and southern opilio crab, some have only northern and some have only southern opilio quota. A processor with only southern opilio quota could pay a higher exvessel price than one who has only northern quota to process. The historic differential between northern & southern landed crab prior to 2000 averaged about 7.5% lower exvessel value for vessels landing their opilio crab in the north. Due to fleet consolidation, fuel costs and other factors, the differential is likely different today but still creates at least some degree of cost stratification within the Alaskan snow crab fishery.

 

Recognizing all of that, the following table displays the approximate exvessel and wholesale price for the past three years. The reduced 2008/2009 season price reflected the weakening Japanese market and the excess inventory from Canada. Unless there is a significant strengthening of the Japanese economy or the U.S./Yen ratio remains favorable to Japan, prices in 2009/2010 are likely to remain relatively low.

 

 

Norton Sound Red King crab, St. Matthew Blue King Crab and Pribilof Red, Bering Sea Tanner Crab and Blue King Crab

 

Norton Sound Red King

The first king crab fishery of the year in Alaska is the regional Norton Sound fishery. This 370,000 pound quota red king crab fishery ran from mid-June to mid-September 2009. The stock is located on the far north edge of the red king crab distribution, and is the smallest in size of all commercial red king crab. The product mostly enters the summer Alaskan tourist trade and a few specialty markets. This year���s harvest was close to the past six-year average. The small quota and season timing do not make it competitive with other crab markets, but the fishery provides a welcome opportunity for local fishermen.

 

St. Matthew Blue King

The St. Matthew blue king crab fishery was closed in 1999 when NMFS declared it ���overfished���. It has remained closed until this year when NMFS determined that the stock had ���rebuilt���. While the stock is technically rebuilt, it is still at fairly low abundance. Prior to rationalization, the ADF&G would not open a fishery at such low stock size. Because the current harvest will be controlled under individual fishing quotas, overharvest will not occur and a conservative harvest of 1.136 million pounds (the TAC) can be accommodated. This stock may also benefit by a recent action by the Council; they enlarged the flatfish trawl closure of the St. Matthew Island Habitat Conservation Area to further protect blue king crab habitat.

 

Because St. Matthew blue crab were closed for 10 years, they lack market recognition. Therefore, being a small king crab they will compete with other small king crabs, including golden king crab, on the market.

 

Bering Sea Tanner

Also scheduled to open is the Bering Sea Tanner crab fishery. The bairdi Tanner fishery usually has two components, one east and one west of 166�� W. longitude line. Both fisheries were closed from 1997 ��� 2005 when NMFS declared the stock overfished and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council developed a rebuilding plan.

 

In 2005 abundance was sufficient to initiate a small fishery, and by 2007 NMFS determined that the stock was rebuilt based on their benchmarks being met. For the 2009/2010 season a TAC of 1.35 million pounds for the area east of 166�� W. longitude opened on October 15th, 2009 and closes on March 31st, 2010. The Eastern fishery is largely conducted as a bycatch fishery for the Bristol Bay red king crab fishery and the opilio snow crab fishery. West of the 166�� line the Tanner crab fishery remains closed due to sublegal male bycatch concerns.

 

 

Because bairdi Tanner crab had been closed for 9 years and opened at very low allowable catch, their stock also lacks current market recognition. Processors indicate that they either have small specialty markets or sell the frozen sections as large snow crab.

 

Pribilof King Crab

The Pribilof red and blue king crab fisheries will both remain closed in 2009/2010 season. The Pribilof blue king crab stock remains depressed and cannot sustain a fishery. The Pribilof red crab fishery will also remain closed due to uncertainty with the red crab survey abundance estimates and concerns with incidental catch and mortality of blue crab in a directed Pribilof red crab fishery.