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History of Alaska Red King Crab, Paralithodes Camtschaticus, Bottom Trawl Surveys, 1940–61

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History of Alaska Red King Crab, Paralithodes Camtschaticus, Bottom Trawl Surveys, 1940–61 History of Alaska Red King Crab, Paralithodes camtschaticus, Bottom Trawl Surveys, 1940–61 MARK ZIMMERMANN, C. BRAXTON DEW, and BEVERLY A. MALLEY Introduction As early as the 1930’s, the Alaska ≥135 mm) was recorded in 1980. Then, red king crab resource was a heav- in 1981, the Bristol Bay red king crab The U.S. government was integrally ily exploited species, with significant population abruptly collapsed in one involved with the development of Alas- foreign commercial harvests occurring of the more precipitous declines in the ka’s red king crab, Paralithodes camts- well before the first U.S. (1940–41) ex- history of U.S. fisheries management. chaticus, fishing industry (Blackford, ploratory bottom trawl survey (Schmitt, In the opinion of Alaska crab manag- 1979). In 1940 Congress appropriated 1940; FWS, 1942). During the 1930’s, ers and modelers (Otto, 1986; Zheng funds for surveys of Alaska’s fishery Japan and Russia together took 9–14 and Kruse, 2002; NPFMC1), the crash resources (Schmitt, 1940; FWS, 1942). million kg of king crab per year from of the Bristol Bay red king crab stock Based on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife the southeast Bering Sea, within the vast was a natural phenomenon unrelated to Service’s (FWS) exploratory work for area referred to as Bristol Bay. commercial fishing. red king crab during the 1940’s, skepti- In 1946, U.S. fishermen began com- Considering the history of the Bristol cal commercial trawlers expected the mercial king crab fishing in these same Bay red king crab commercial fishery bulk of their profits to come from bot- waters, and by 1963 the United States and the unresolved issues surrounding tomfish. However, as commercial fishing dominated the fishery (Blackford, the 1981 collapse (Dew and McCon- ventures ramped up after World War II, 1979). By 1960, after trawls and tangle naughey, 2005), it is possible that data it was soon apparent that red king crab nets were outlawed as capture methods from the 1940–61 surveys might be of dominated the epibenthic biomass of the for Alaska king crab, only pots could some help in answering the question of southeastern Bering Sea and would be be fished and only male crabs could be whether the stock was overfished. An the major product (Blackford, 1979). retained, with all females and undersize important reference point used to assess males being released. Despite these sub- the relative health of a stock is the virgin Mark Zimmermann and C. Braxton Dew are with stantial restrictions, during the 1970’s, stock biomass (B0). If the ratio between the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, National the male-only red king crab fishery was current and virgin biomass (B/B ) is Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, 7600 Sand 0 Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115-6349. Bev- the most valuable single-species fishery below some predetermined threshold, erly A. Malley is with the Alaska Fisheries Sci- in Alaska and, after decades of increas- then the stock is diminished to the point ence Center Kodiak Laboratory, National Marine ing catches, the all-time record U.S. where it may be characterized as being Fisheries Service, NOAA, Kodiak Fisheries 2 Research Center, 301 Research Court, Kodiak, harvest of 59 million kg of Bristol Bay overfished. According to Pereyra et al. , AK 99615-7400 (corresponding author Mark. legal crab (males with a carapace length the baseline year for the Bering Sea [email protected]). bottom trawl program is 1975. However, it is likely that earlier surveys, conducted during the 1940’s and 1950’s, can tell us more about the B of Bristol Bay red ABSTRACT—Thirteen bottom trawl survey methods, a version of this grid-pat- 0 surveys conducted in Alaska waters for terned survey continues through the present red king crab, Paralithodes camtschaticus, day, making it one of the oldest bottom-trawl 1NPFMC. 2000. Stock assessment and fishery during 1940–61 are largely forgotten today surveys in U.S. waters. Unfortunately, many evaluation (SAFE) report for the king and Tanner even though they helped define our current of the specific findings made during these crab fisheries of the Bering Sea and Aleutian knowledge of this resource. Government early efforts have been lost to the research Islands (BSAI) regions. Crab model structures publications on six exploratory surveys community. Here, we report on the meth- and model fits. Appendix 1:330–348. Compiled (1940–49, 1957) included sample locations ods, results, and significance of these early by the plan team for king and Tanner crab fisher- and some catch composition data, but these ies of the BSAI. Unpubl. rep. available from the surveys, which were collated from pub- North Pacific Fishery Management Council, 605 documents are rarely referenced. Only brief lished reports and the unpublished original West 4th Avenue, Suite 306, Anchorage, AK. summaries of the other seven annual (1955– data sheets so that researchers might begin 2 Pereyra, W. T, J. E. Reeves, and R. G. Bakkala. 61) grid-patterned trawl surveys from the incorporating this information into stock 1976. Demersal fish and shellfish resources of eastern Bering Sea were published. Al- assessments, ecosystem trend analyses, and the eastern Bering Sea in the baseline year 1975. though there have been interruptions in perhaps even revise the baseline popula- U.S. Dep. Commer., NOAA, Natl. Mar. Fish. sampling and some changes in the trawl tion distribution and abundance estimates. Serv., NWAFSC Proc. Rep., 619 p. 71(1) 1 king crab than a 1975–80 data series col- lected from a highly exploited stock on the brink of collapse. Also, according to an Environmental Impact Statement on Essential Fish Habitat, “the abundance of red king crabs in the late 1970’s was anomalously high and should not be viewed as a realistic goal for restoring the population” (NMFS, 2005:L-19). However, the accuracy of this statement is difficult to verify without reference to data from surveys during the 1940’s, 1950’s, and 1960’s. From 1940 through 1961, a series of bottom-trawl surveys was conducted to determine the biology, distribution, and means of commercially exploiting the red king crab population in Alaska waters. The first surveys (1940–49, 1957) were wide-ranging explorations, as well as cooperative arrangements between government research agencies and the private fishing industry, with the intent of identifying crab concentrations and harvest methods needed to create a self-sustaining U.S. red king crab can- Figure 1.—The halibut schooner Dorothy, which participated in the 1940–41 Alaska ning industry. The later surveys (1955– king crab exploration and in the 1948 Pacific Explorer fleet expedition. Its small 61) were conducted on a predetermined engine could be supplemented with sail supported by two masts. Bottom trawl gear was set and retrieved over the side. The dories on the stern of the vessel were used grid station pattern in the eastern Bering by pairs of men for halibut hand-lining. Photo of the Dorothy at Mitrofania Island, Sea and run by researchers at the Seattle Alaska, courtesy of the Lokken collection (#212012) at the Museum of History and Biological Laboratory, or “Montlake Industry, Seattle, Wash. Photo credit: Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society. Lab,” to monitor the effect of the red king crab fishery on crab populations. [The parent research agency was termed (AFSC) Shellfish Assessment (Kodiak) tions was to determine the information the Fish and Wildlife Service from 1940 and Groundfish Assessment (Seattle) needed (areas of abundance, crab cap- to 1955 and then the USFWS Bureau Programs, and is a direct descendant of ture methods, and canning techniques) of Commercial Fisheries (BCF) start- these original trawl surveys. Our objec- to develop a domestic crab fishing in- ing in 1956.] In the early1960’s the red tive is to describe the purpose, effort, dustry, as it was noted that Americans king crab program was transferred from and findings of the early red king crab were purchasing millions of pounds Seattle, Wash., to Juneau, Alaska. The bottom trawl surveys so that the infor- of canned Alaska crab meat taken by program was again moved to Kodiak, mation can be utilized today. Besides Japanese and Russian vessels operat- Alaska, in 1970 (Greenwood, 1982). red king crab data, there is also catch ing in Alaska waters (FWS, 1942). The interruptions in the red king crab information on other invertebrate and The first red king crab exploration was program might partly explain why these fish species, seafloor substrate types, undertaken in the fall of 1940 aboard early surveys are never referenced in foreign fishing vessel activity, surface the Tondeleyo and Dorothy (Fig. 1) the reports on current annual crab (e.g. and bottom water temperatures, and bird (Schmitt, 1940), and it was completed Rugolo et al.3) and groundfish bottom and marine mammal sightings. aboard the Dorothy, Champion, and trawl surveys (e.g. Acuna and Lauth, Locks in 1941 (FWS, 1942). These 2008), which are conducted jointly by Exploratory Bottom Trawl Surveys, were private vessels chartered by the the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s 1940–49, 1957 eight staff members of the Alaska Crab Investigation Staff of the Fishery Tech- Tondeleyo and Dorothy (1940) nical Laboratory in Seattle (Montlake) 3Rugolo, L. J., E. A. Chilton, C. E. Armistead, and Dorothy, Champion, and J. A. Haaga. 2006. Report to industry on with money provided by Congress the 2006 eastern Bering Sea crab survey. AFSC and Locks (1941) (FWS, 1942). This survey was the most Proc. Rep. 2006-17, 61 p. Alaska Fish. Sci. Cent., NOAA, Natl. Mar. Fish. Serv., Kodiak Fish. Res. The primary motivation for launch- extensive in terms of geographic area Cent., Kodiak ing the Alaska red king crab investiga- covered, seasons fished, gear experi- 2 Marine Fisheries Review Figure 2.—Bottom trawl (●) and tangle net (▲) sampling locations during red king crab exploratory surveys conducted by the Tondeleyo and Dorothy in 1940, and by the Dorothy, Champion, and Locks in 1941.
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