The fishermen of Kodiak and Alaska Peninsula are filled with joy over the news that they are getting bigger catch quotas for bairdi Tanner crab, a mid-January fishery important to local economies. It is informed that bairdi are the larger cousins of the better-known opilio Tanners, or snow crab. The bairdi boost stems from a big pulse of new crab recruits that biologists have been tracking for years.
Nick Sagalkin, regional manager at the state Department of Fish and Game in Kodiak, said that the news is fueling the increase in the harvest this year. It takes five to six years for crabs to mature to market size, and only male crabs are taken. Sagalkin said the Tanner resurgence is looking even better than expected around Kodiak and southward.
Sackton cautioned that the lack of volume could dampen sales interest in Japan but said more niche markets are eager to buy bairdi Tanner crab. Kodiak crabbers usually average above $2 a pound for their Tanners, with Alaska Peninsula crab fetching about a dollar less. The Kodiak 2010 crab harvest is set at 700,000 pounds, up from 500,000.
