February 4, 2022 — An unexpected and precipitous drop in the estimated biomass for Alaska snow crab has resulted in an official “overfished” designation.
The designation, made retroactive to 19 October, 2021, was in response to the the 2021 stock assessment, which was presented to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in October and reported that the minimum threshold for the biomass of mature male opilios is 76,700 metric tons, and the most recent assessment estimated it at 50,600 metric tons – a historic low.