Meanwhile, as fishermen prepare for their second season of crab fishing with federal Individual Fishing Quotas, the crab rationalization plan has come under attack from Food and Water Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based consumer watchdog group “working with grassroots organizations and other allies around the world to stop the corporate control of our food and water.”

In a publication released in September titled “Irrational Approach: How Individual Fishing Quotas Protect Private Interests, Not Public Resources,” Food and Water Watch blasts the new crab program, saying it has harmed coastal communities and the environment and left publicly owned resources almost exclusively in the hands of a few large companies.

According to the report, 1,150 people lost their jobs, and the remaining jobs pay 50-70 percent less than they did prior to rationalization. It states that coastal communities that depend upon the number of boats and people fishing are suffering immense economic losses.

The report also criticizes processor quotas, one of the more controversial aspects of the rationalization plan that guaranteed established processors 90 percent of the catch. It states: “Now a handful of giant processing corporations, many of them based in Japan, have guaranteed buying rights to crab. These processors now call all the shots, telling fishermen when to fish, what to fish and how much they will get paid.”

In addition, the report takes on environmental concerns. It reads, “The marine environment has fared no better than coastal communities since rationalization. Bycatch was a serious problem in the first year of rationalization, with an astounding 5.8 million red king crab being discarded back into the sea.”

It goes on, “One in five, some 1.16 million, discarded crabs die. A large number of these were edible crabs that processors refused to accept due to small flaws or a discoloration on the shell.”

Alaska Department of Fish and Game estimates as much as 25 percent of crab brought to the surface and then released suffer mortality. The Bristol Bay red king crab quota for the upcoming season was reduced by nearly 4.6 percent as a result of “high-grading” during last year’s season.

The report is also looking to the future. “As several fisheries in the U.S. plan to implement IFQ programs, the devastation caused by IFQs cannot be ignored,” it continues. “Irrational Approach discusses the consequences of crab rationalization and calls for a more rational approach to fisheries management. Due to the inherent nature of IFQ programs, current congressional efforts to develop guidelines would still allow for consolidation, absentee ownership and environmental degradation.”

The full 20-page report can be viewed at www.foodandwaterwatch.org.

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.