![]() ![]() Fishing has been closed for red king crab in the Pribilof Islands and Western Aleutian Islands for many years.They collect data on catch and bycatch and document any violations of fishing regulations. Observers are required on 20 percent of the vessels in the fishery.Managers monitor catch in real time and are able to close the fishery when the harvest limit is reached.Vessels carry vessel monitoring systems (satellite communications systems used to monitor fishing activities) and must report their landings electronically. They’re given the opportunity to purchase shares in the fishery before the shares are offered for sale outside the community. This program includes a community development quota, which protects community interests by allowing community groups a percentage of the harvest. Managers allocate shares of the harvest among harvesters, processors, and coastal communities through the crab rationalization program, which was implemented in 2005 to address economic, safety, and environmental issues in the fishery. Every year, managers set the harvest limit for the next fishing season using the most recent estimates of crab abundance.Fishermen must install escape panels and rings on their pots to prevent ghost fishing (when lost pots continue to capture and kill species) and to reduce bycatch. These measures help ensure that crabs are able to reproduce and replace the ones that are harvested. Only male crabs of a certain size may be harvested, and fishing is not allowed during mating and molting periods. The red king crab fishery is currently managed according to the “three S’s”-size, sex, and season.State regulations must comply with the fishery management plan, the national standards of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and other applicable federal laws: Managed under the Fishery Management Plan for Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crabs, which defers management of crab fisheries to the State of Alaska with federal oversight.NOAA Fisheries, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game manage the red king crab fishery.Large red king crabs have few predators except right after molting.Smaller crabs are eaten by a variety of groundfish, octopi, sea otters, and crabs, including other red king crabs.Larger crabs eat a much wider range of items including worms, clams, mussels, barnacles, crabs, fish, sea stars, sand dollars, and brittle stars.Smaller crabs eat algae, small worms, small clams, and other small animals.Red king crabs eat almost anything they can find and crush with their claws.After molting they are soft and vulnerable to predators until their new shell hardens.Red king crabs can only grow by molting (shedding their old shell and growing a new one). ![]()
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