Homer has seen 7.8 million pounds of halibut cross the docks so far this season, 18 percent of the statewide total. Kodiak follows with 6 million pounds delivered equaling 14 percent of the total. Seward comes in third with 5.4 million pounds and 12 percent of the total.
Prices in Homer continue to astound fishermen, with as much as $4.60 per pound being paid for large fish. Prices are expected to remain high as the season winds down and halibut deliveries become scarce.
Prices at the end of the 2005 season were around $4.10 per pound.
Eighty-one percent of the statewide quota has been landed, slightly below the 83 percent landed by this time last year. Area 3A, which includes Homer, has had 81 percent of its total quota caught.
The season closes Nov. 15.
The Alaska Sea Grant Program has launched a multi-agency plan to rebuild depressed red king crab stocks around Kodiak, an idea that has been in the works for several years.
The dream took concrete steps toward reality last month when 16 egg-bearing female crab, planned to be used as brood stock, were captured by the Alaska Depart-ment of Fish and Game and delivered to the Alutiiq Pride Shellfish Hatchery along the Seward waterfront.
The crab were caught in Alitak Bay on the south end of Kodiak Island, and NOAA Fisheries research biologist Sara Persselin prepared the crab for their journey. They traveled by plane from Kodiak to Anchorage, and by van from Anchorage to Seward.
Sixteen male crab were captured for pathology and genetic analysis by Fish and Game.
Kodiak has a rich history in the red king crab fishery. At its peak in 1965, fishermen harvested more than 94 million pounds of crab worth about $12 million. By the early 1980s, however, stocks had crashed.
Decades of fishing restrictions aimed at protecting the stocks have failed to revive them, though, and Brian Allee, director of the Alaska Sea Grant College Program, said the time is right to try something new.
“This is the first step down a very long path,” Allee said in a press statement.
Allee is leading the Alaska Sea Grant effort to bring fishermen, state and federal fishery managers, and university scientists together in a collaborative effort to breed king crab in captivity.
If it proves successful, Allee said, researchers would seek state permits to conduct a pilot release of juvenile crab to learn whether crab cultured in captivity can survive in the wild.
Allee said these initial efforts are small-scale, essentially to understand the nutritional and culturing needs of red king crab in captivity.
But if they prove successful, they could open the door to construction of large-scale crab hatcheries that would seed Alaska waters with tens of millions of king crab in a bid to jump-start sluggish wild production.
The hatcheries might operate much like the state’s salmon hatcheries that release hundreds of millions of juvenile salmon into the wild to grow to adult size and be caught by fishermen.
“Large-scale hatchery release of king crab is still years away,” Allee said.
“Right now, we have to prove the feasibility of the idea. There are lots of questions to be answered before investing in hatcheries on the scale used to enhance wild salmon stocks.”
The Alaska King Crab Rehabilitation and Enhance-ment Project is a cooperative effort of Alaska Sea Grant, the Alutiiq Pride Shellfish Hatchery, NOAA Fisheries, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences.
Cristy Fry has commercial fished in Homer since 1978. She also designs and builds gear for the industry. She currently longlines for halibut and gillnets salmon in upper Cook Inlet aboard the F/V Realist. She can be reached at cristy-fry@excite.com.
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