Overview

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) will meet March 31 - April 7, 2025 for a virtual-only web conference. At this meeting, Council members will discuss protections for Kodiak District Tanner crab. Alaska Marine Conservation Council (AMCC) and Tanner crab fishermen are asking the Council to move the Gulf of Alaska Tanner Crab Protections Discussion Paper to an Initial Review analysis. They must hear directly from organizations and individuals about the importance of this fishery to Kodiak and coastal communities in the Gulf of Alaska. 

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Our request remains the same: implement measures to protect Tanner crabs in their preferred habitat. We know where the crabs are and can mitigate the impacts of groundfish fisheries with proactive management tools such as area closures. The maps found in Figure 5, page 1 of the latest Gulf of Alaska Tanner Crab Protections Discussion Paper, illustrate the importance of the identified areas to crab. In addition, our scientific understanding of the vulnerability of Tanner crab during mating and molting, which occurs between February and early May each year, is highlighted. The Tanner crab is doing well, and it is time to add management structures to support them. 

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Why Protect Tanner Crab?

The Kodiak District Tanner crab fishery provides an essential source of revenue to Alaskan fishermen and Alaskan communities in the winter. It helps to support small boat fishermen during a time when there are limited fishing opportunities. While many species and prices paid to fishermen are trending down, the Tanner crab fishery has remained a bright spot, and fishermen increasingly depend on it. Most of the fleet is homeported in Gulf of Alaska communities, and the monies earned trickle down through local economies and help with repairs and start-up costs for upcoming fishing seasons. The bulk of the fleet resides in Kodiak but there is participation from vessel owners and crew from the rural communities around Kodiak, Chignik, Cordova, and Homer. 

 

History of Conservation Measures

Since the Kodiak District Tanner crab fishery re-started under a new management plan in 1997, Tanner crab fishermen have championed conservation measures to mitigate fishing impacts on the crab. These measures have included minimizing the impacts on crab stocks with low, 20 crab pot limits and daylight-only fishing, which minimizes the crab's exposure to cold winter nights. In 2025, Kodiak-based Tanner crab fishermen submitted proposals for increased juvenile crab escapement panels, rings to reduce the handling of small crabs, and maintaining a 20 pot limit regardless of the guideline harvest level.

AMCC and Kodiak District Tanner crab fishermen have been advocating for protection for the Tanner crab from the impacts of bottom trawling in critical crab habitat since 2004. The areas of abundance were highlighted through a local knowledge mapping project designed to integrate fishermen's knowledge from a multigenerational perspective. The areas identified by the fishermen were corroborated by long-standing Alaska Department of Fish and Game annual summer trawl surveys and the directed winter Tanner crab fishery.

The statistical areas off the east side of Kodiak Island that AMCC and Tanner crab fishermen are trying to protect from the impacts of bottom trawling are critical to the crab's life history and the Tanner crab population around the island. From 2013-2023 an average of 49% of all mature female Tanner crab, 47% of all mature male Tanner crab, and 41% of all legal male abundance in the Kodiak District was estimated from statistical areas 525702 and 525630, the areas we are trying to protect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Engage in the Council Meeting

There are two ways to engage:

1. Share written comments. You can share your written comments under agenda item D2, GOA Tanner Crab Protections, by March 28 at noon. Scroll down to agenda item D2 and select “Comment Now”. You can type directly into the text box or attach a document. You may also update and resubmit a letter you already submitted when the issue was discussed in February 2024.
   
   Be sure to share information about the fisheries you participate in, your home port, dependence on commercial fishing, and the importance of the Tanner crab fishery to you. Feel free to use the information provided above on the importance of Tanner crab in the identified areas to inform your comments. Find instructions on how to write a comment letter and a sample comment letter here. 

 

1. Testify during the meeting. The upcoming Council meeting will be virtual only and take place from March 31 to April 7. Once the meeting begins you will be able to click on the “Sign-up” link next to the D2, GOA Tanner Crab Protections agenda item. The Tanner crab discussion is scheduled for the Advisory Panel on April 2 and 3 and then will be discussed by the Council on April 6. Find Instructions on how to provide live testimony here.
    

For more information on how to engage effectively in the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, please check out AMCC’s new guidebook. This tool is meant to contribute to our community and enhance our collective ability to engage in and influence the Council process. Visit www.akmarine.org/publications to learn more.