The Alaska Department of Fish and Game have released the catch quotas for Bering Sea snow crab fishing for the 2015/2016 season, drastically cutting what was allowed last year.
The department’s new quota stands at 40.6 million pounds, a difference of more than 40 percent compared to the 67.95 million pounds allowed for the 2014/2015 season.
The department breaks the quotas down between Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) and Community Development Quota (CDQ). For the new season, the IFQ is now 36.5 million pounds, a drop of nearly 25 million pounds from the 61.2-million-pound IFQ set last year.
For CDQ, the new quota is 4.1 million pounds, a drop of 2.7 million pounds from the 6.8-million-pound CDQ set for the previous season.
The department is also once again restricting fishing to areas outside of the zone marked by 56°30′ N, 170° W; 57° N, 171° W; 58° N, 171° W; 58° N, 168° W; 57° N, 168° W; 56°30′ N, 169° W; 56°30′ N, 170° W, in order to protect the Pribilof blue king crab stocks.
The new season opens this year on 15 October at noon, and lasts through 15 May 2016 in the Eastern Subdistrict and 31 May in the Western Subdistrict.
