An estimated half-million king crab dumped over the side

摘要

Backers of individual quotas in the Bering Sea crab fisheries touted resource conservation as one of the big benefits. By ending the race for shellfish, they reasoned, boats would slow down and take better care to avoid bycatch and cut waste. But lastfall's Bristol Bay red king crab fishery, the first major harvest to operate under the new rationalized management, failed to yield the expected conservation benefits. In fact, crabbers discarded a troubling number of legal-sized male crab, according toa May study by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The study did not specify the reason why crabbers would dump legal crab overboard. Some industry players suggested it was because processors demanded new-shell crabs, free of barnacles or blemishes. Pretty crab could pay a higher price in Japan or other markets.