Alaska Snow Crab Season Canceled as Population Faces Unprecedented Decline

Tracey Harrington McCoy
·2 min read
2
UNITED STATES - CIRCA 1900: Fishing in Alaska, United States - Snow crabs ready for conditioning at the fishery. (Photo by Jean-Erick PASQUIER/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
UNITED STATES - CIRCA 1900: Fishing in Alaska, United States - Snow crabs ready for conditioning at the fishery. (Photo by Jean-Erick PASQUIER/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Jean-Erick PASQUIER/Gamma-Rapho/Getty

After years of declining numbers, the Alaskan snow crab season is canceled.

Earlier this month, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announced that due to low stock, crab fisheries aren't allowed to open for the 2022/2023 season.

Miranda Westphal, a biologist with the state's fish and game department, told The New York Times that the state is looking into why the crab population was declining.

"From 2018 to 2021, we lost about 90 percent of these animals," Westphal told the outlet.

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"Snow crabs are an Arctic species," Westphal continued, saying that they need cold water. But in the last few years, the Bering Sea "was extremely warm and the snow crab population kind of huddled together in the coolest water they could find."

"They probably starved to death and there was not enough food," the biologist said.

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The state also considered disease to be a factor, but can't say for sure. "We don't know and we are never going to actually know because the crabs are gone," she said.

Even with the crab season canceled, the famous Alaska-based crabbing show Deadliest Catch will go on.

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According to executive producer Arom Starr-Paul, the 19th season will launch in the spring of 2023.

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"Fans can anticipate another great season of Deadliest Catch where we will document our captains as they participate in other sustainable Bering Sea crab and pot fisheries, such as Golden King Crab, Bairdi and Cod," he said in a statement to Deadline.