SEAFOODNEWS.COM by Michael Ramsingh — October 10, 2014 — Alaska's snow crab fishing quota for the 2014-15 fishing season, which starts up next week, was raised 25 percent from last season's total or by nearly 14 million pounds.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced this season's total Bering Sea snow crab quota at 67.95 million pounds. The catch will be allocated between the IFQ holders and CDQ groups. 61.155 million pounds will go to IFQ, with the remaining 6.795 million pounds given to the CDQ groups.
Fishermen will commence the fishing season at noon Alaska time on October 15. The fishery will remain open through May 15, 2015 in the Eastern subdistrict and through May 31, 2015 in the Western subdistrict.
This marks the third Alaskan crab fishery to see this season's allowable harvest bumped up significantly. The state's red king crab quota was raised 16 percent to 9.986 million pounds. Meanwhile the Tanner or Bairdi crab catch will be the highest since 1993 at 15.1 million pounds.
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.