Alaskan snow crabs are canaries for worsening fishing woes
The Bering Sea crab industry was booming when Chuck Hosmer became captain of the F/V Baranof in 1980. At the time, crew members could take home up to $90,000 in a single season. But his sons Adam and Andrew, who grew up fishing on Whidbey Island and followed their father’s footsteps into seafood, may never see the industry return to what it once was.
Alaskan crabbing is not for the faint of heart. The northeastern Bering Sea, home of the snow crab, is covered in sea ice from November to June. Winter storms, powerful tidal currents and 40-foot swells overlap hazardously with the crabbing season, but crews brave enough to work one of the country’s most dangerous professions can make tens of thousands of dollars in just a few weeks.
In the past, the payout was worth the risk. But Alaskan waters once teeming with king and snow crab now sustain a fraction of the catch they used to. In 1991, the peak of the Bering Sea snow crab fishery, captains harvested more than 328 million pounds of crab, according to data from the National Marine Fishery Service. But a catch that was worth $164 million in its heyday — more than $358 million in today’s dollars — has now fallen to zero.
“No one thought snow crab would disappear. Nobody. Even a year ago, we never would have expected a canceled season for snow crab,” said Adam Hosmer, one of the Baranof’s first mates. “[T]hey used to just be a dime a dozen. If you ask any of the old-timers, they used to be everywhere. Everywhere.”
https://crosscut.com/environment/2022/12/alaskan-snow-crabs-are-canaries-worsening-fishing-woes
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