Commercial fishermen are on track to take the snow crab quota after all.

With ten days left to the opilio season, the fleet has a less than 8 million pounds of crab to catch. Boats are filling up their pots, and 31 of the 72 vessels registered to fish have checked out of the fishery according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

This is a dramatic improvement from last month. Going into Memorial Day weekend, it looked like it would be an impossible challenge for the fleet to take the full 89-million pound allocation. Fishermen had been hampered for months, with record-setting ice in the Bering Sea closing off fishing grounds and damaging gear. Conditions were so bad that the Alaska Department of Fish and Game even added an extra two weeks to the snow crab season to help the fleet get closer to its allocation.

The turnaround began last week. The fleet brought in almost 9 million pounds of snow crab, more than they had taken the entire month before. Between January and May, the fleet landed just 3.5 million pounds of snow crab per week on average. The change of pace is largely attributable to the retreat of dense sea ice, which began in early May.

The season is set to close next Friday.