Unalaska, AK – The Alaska Department of Fish & Game has released this season's Crab TACs for Bristol Bay red king and Bering Sea snow and tanner crabs. The seasons will open on October 15th.

The Bristol Bay Red King total allowable catch (TAC) allows for 20,364,000 pounds, a very similar number to last year.

The Bering Sea Snow Crab fishery total TAC is 58,500,000 pounds, 4.5 million pounds less than last year. ADF&G Biologist Forrest Bowers said some had expected the TAC to go up not down because of previous assessment models.

"So that was a surprise and I think members of the industry will be disappointed that the TAC has dropped," he said. "But really when you look at the uncertainty around the estimates, often they're plus or minus 30 percent or more. When you're talking about a change on the order of 6 or 7 million pounds when you're talking about 50 millions, that's not a big change."

The Bering Sea Tanner Crab allocation is split between east and west districts. The total TAC for the east is 2,763,000 pounds, down from last year's 3.45 million. For the Western District, the TAC is 1,537,000 pounds, down from last year's 2,176,000. Bowers said he doesn't think the drop will make a difference.

Tanner crab "TACs have not been fully utilized in the last 3 years. For example, in 2007 we caught 2.1 million pounds out of a five plus million pound TAC. I don't think the drop is going to constrain the harvest at all. In fact, I'll be pleased if we catch the entire tanner crab TAC," he said.

Bowers said typically the fleet doesn't go after the tanners as hard because it's not as profitable. "The price for tanner crab is 20 or 30 cents per pound higher than snow crab but the catch rates are quite a bit lower. Good fishing for tanner crab in the Bering Sea might be in the order of 30 to 50 legal crab per pot. Good fishing for snow crab would be 400 to 600 crab per pot."

Despite speculation to the contrary, St. Matthew Island and the Pribilof Districts will remain closed.