The Alaska Department of Fish and Game lent a hand to the struggling snow crab fleet over the weekend, opening up 650 square miles of new fishing grounds. This year’s snow crab season has been repeatedly put on hold because of ice conditions in the Bering Sea and the limited crab grounds are getting pretty well picked over. Although fishermen brought in almost 5.5 million pounds of crab last week, the number of crab caught in each pot was only about half the average.

Fish and Game biologist Britta Baechler says opening the area should provide some relief for the crab fleet.

“That [the area] was closed earlier on in the season due to Pribilof blue king crab concerns but we had lots of input from fishermen saying that they’d never caught blue king crab in the area and that it’s a really productive snow crabgrounds.”

Baechler says Fish and Game ran a number of analyses and decided the fishermen were right – the area is not home to the overfished blue king crab.  So it was opened by emergency order on Sunday.  But it might be a while before the crabbers get any relief from the additional grounds.  Sea ice has once again descended to well below the Pribilof Island of St. George, covering up the new grounds.  At least a dozen boats are tied up in Unalaska, waiting for warmer weather.

Jake Jacobsen is executive director of Inter-cooperative Exchange, the largest crabber coop.  He says opening new fishing grounds is helpful, but only if the ice retreats enough for boats to fish.  Either way, he says, the fleet is going to continue pushing Fish and Game for a season extension.

“We hope that we don’t need an extension. It’s still a big question.  We’re just trying to prepare the way in case one is needed.”

Jacobsen asked Fish and Game to extend the season during the last period of heavy ice, but Baechler says the department still hasn’t made a decision.

“At this point we’re not going to make any decisions on that because we want to see how the harvest keeps progressing, probably until the end of April.”

The snow crab season closes on May 15 in the eastern district and May 31 in the western district.