Unalaska, AK – Biologists are currently considering the health of different Bering Sea crab stocks and how this will affect the fishing industry. This summer's stock surveys show that St. Matthew's blue crab stocks are now healthy, opilio crab stocks are not rebuilt, and Tanner crabs are almost overfished.

The St. Matthew's blue king crab fishery closed in 1999, but it may re-open this year. The biomass is considered rebuilt by federal standards. Monday the Alaska Board of Fisheries removed a management regulation that clears the way to allow the fishery to re-open. Alaska Department of Fish & Game area management biologist Forrest Bowers said the change would not hurt the health of the fishery.

"The minimum TAC was a management tool and we have other thresholds in place that are biological conservation thresholds. And those won't change. We can eliminate the management tool but still have those biological safeguards."

However, the Pribilof Island blue king crab fishery is still considered overfished. In a letter to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, NOAA's Alaska Region acting administer Robert Mecum recommends possibly closing some areas around the Pribilofs to pot cod gear to reduce blue king crab bycatch.

The Bering Sea snow crab stock is not considered rebuilt yet, either. According to the Magnuson-Stevens Act, fishery managers had 10 years to rebuild the stock from the low of 146 million pounds of mature male biomass in 2002. The stock is now up to 241 million, but it hasn't been at high enough levels for two consecutive years. ADF&G recommends a new 5-year rebuilding plan that will get the population up to necessary levels by 2013. Bowers explains that closing the fishery entirely would not rapidly speed up the rebuilding process.

"Even if we had closed the fishery this year, it still wouldn't have been rebuilt within 10 years. There's going to be an interim harvest strategy to be used this year to allow some harvest, but in all likelihood it would not be as much harvest as the normal state harvest strategy would allow," Bowers said.

The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires that managers balance the needs of the fishery stock rebuilding plan with the needs of the local fishing communities. NOAA recommends the snow crab total allowable catch be set at 50.5 million pounds, a 14 percent drop from last year's TAC of 58.7 million pounds.

Tanner crabs are now considered almost overfished and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council has two years to develop a rebuilding plan. The Tanner stock is expected to drop from 118.23 million pounds to 70.16 million pounds of mature male biomass this year.

The total allowable catches for most of the crab fisheries will be released either Wednesday or Thursday of this week. Fisheries managers will then say if they will open the St. Matthew's blue king fishery or not.