Government shutdown wreaks havoc for start of Bering Sea crab fisheries
The Bering Sea crab fleet was ready to head to the fishing grounds over the weekend after the government shutdown and unissued licenses stalled the Oct. 15 start of the crab season. Skippers of the 80 boats estimated the extra time tied up in Dutch Harbor cost them each $1,000 per day.
Meanwhile, the situation was even worse for small boat crabbers at Kodiak and the Westward region who learned there would not even be a Tanner fishery come January.
“It is not unexpected,” said Mark Stichert, a shellfish biologist at ADF&G in Kodiak. “We’ve been seeing a decline in abundance of legal sized or ma...
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