Unalaska, AK – After taking a beating last season, Bering Sea crab fishermen are hoping to secure a better price for their red king crab before they start fishing this month.

Negotiators for the Bering Sea crab-harvesting co-ops posted a minimum starting price of $4.35 a pound on Monday. That's well above last year's opening price of about $3.50 and closing price of about $3.93.

Fishermen have good reason to be optimistic. Last year's prices were driven down mostly by Russian imports, which caused Alaskan prices to fall a third below what they were in 2005. But Greg White, a Seattle-based negotiator for the Inter-Cooperative Exchange, which represents the fishermen, says that a recent crackdown on widespread illegal fishing off of Kamchatka has allowed Alaskan fishermen to aim for a higher price this year.

The Bristol Bay red king crab season opens on October 15.