Southeast Alaska’s golden king crab fishery reached an all-time high value of $5 million this year, marking an impressive recovery for a fishery that was struggling just a few years ago.
The East Central management area, which includes waters around and north of Petersburg, led the record-breaking season with a harvest value of $2.97 million, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game data.
The high value comes despite lower harvest volumes than last year. Fishermen landed 177,060 pounds from the East Central area this year, compared to 294,588 pounds in 2024. However, prices nearly doubled, reaching $16.78 per pound in 2025 versus $8.54 in 2024, according to the department.
The catch per-unit effort in the area decreased from nine crabs per pot in 2024 to four in 2025, suggesting a possible moderation in the population boom seen in recent years.
Twenty-one vessels participated in the East Central fishery this year, slightly fewer than the 23 permits active in 2024 but substantially above the single-digit participation between 2015 and 2022.
The previous record value for the Southeast fishery was approximately $4.85 million in 2013.
The Southeast Alaska Tanner crab fishery also maintained strong value despite dropping numbers. The 2024-2025 season generated $4.04 million in value from 714,630 pounds of crab, with prices at $5.65 per pound — the second-highest on record.
This past season recorded a significant increase in value from the previous year’s $2.47 million, even though the harvest volume decreased from 857,963 pounds in 2023-2024.
Fifty permits participated in the tanner crab fishery, unchanged from the previous season, but a significant drop from the peak of 85 permits in the 2021-2022 season.
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