King crabs are commercially fished in Alaska and Russia, with different types and locations having different seasons. Fishing quotas and restrictions on catching female and juvenile crabs have been implemented to maintain a healthy population. The length and timing of the season vary depending on the type of crab and location.
King crab is a very large type of crab that lives in cold seas. There are several types of king crabs, red, blue, and gold, that are commercially fished and are found in different locations along the coast of Alaska and Russia. The season is dictated by the crab population, specific type of crab, and location, as different areas and crabs have different seasons. The main purpose of fishing seasons is to limit the number of crabs caught each year in order to maintain a healthy crab population.
At one point, there was no specific season in which king crabs could be caught. These crabs have proved so popular, however, that their habitats have been overexploited, severely reducing the number of crabs left in the wild. To help re-establish king crabs off the coast of Alaska, only male crabs may be caught and they must be of specific sizes. Female and juvenile crabs should be thrown back into the water.
Beginning in 2005, the Alaskan king crab season functions as a quota, with each boat having a specific number of crabs they can catch each season. Prior to that, the season ran from the derby; the boats would compete to catch as many crabs as possible, as the only restriction was the total number of crabs caught in the season, not the number of crabs caught per boat.
As the king crab population has declined along the Alaskan coast, so has the length of the season. At its peak, the red king crab season was just four days, although currently the fishing season has stabilized at between two and four weeks between October and January. The type of crab and location also determines when the season occurs.
In Yakutat areas, the season for red and blue varieties usually occurs during November and December. In Southeast Alaska, red and blue king crab season can run from early November to late January. Golden king crab season occurs from mid-February to mid-June. In the Arctic-Yukon region, red king crab has a much longer season, from early November to late May and even during the months of July and August. In the Aleutian Islands and Bristol Bay, red king crab season runs from mid-October to mid-January, golden season from early August to mid-May, and blue king crabs cannot be fished at all.
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