The Bering Sea crab fleet now stands at 77 vessels, a far cry from the nearly 250 boats before the fishery downsized to catch shares in 2005. Fewer boats means less hands on deck, and as with so many others, the Bering Sea crabbers are ‘graying’ and need to recruit young entrants to sustain the iconic fisheries. To do so, the shareholders have devised a way to give captains and crews a first crack at available crab.
“The long term future of the fishery is dependent on bringing young people in. That’s not unique to crab, we are seeing it all over Alaska and fisheries in the US,” said Mark Gleas...
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