A horde of red king crabs crawled around two black totes filled with seawater as customers picked which ones they’d take home for dinner. The first day of sales had plenty of stock.
These crabs were caught by Gabriel Prout and his family, who own the fishing boat Silver Spray.
“We only brought a small portion of our overall catch back, and it’s about 7,500 pounds,” he said. “We brought it back for the community to try some of an iconic species, especially here in Kodiak and within Alaska.”
It’s the second year in a row Kodiak folks had a chance to buy live red king crab caught around Bristol Bay. The island community isn’t the only one that gets to buy live crab from the Prout family either.
Last year they boated their catch to the mainland and rented trucks to bring them to Anchorage. This year, they’re doing something a bit different.
“We’re actually air freighting them over there from Kodiak,” Prout said. “So we’re chartering a flight from Kodiak, giving them over to Anchorage, and then selling them there to the Anchorage community.”
There’s a limit to how much they can sell as a direct market though. Most of his harvest has to go to a processor, but about 10 percent, called B and C shares, can be sold almost anywhere.
“It’s kind of like a flex pound – you can basically deliver that to anyone who wants it and it’s supposed to be a little bit of a bargaining chip for fishermen to hopefully get a better price at the dock from it,” Prout said.
The TAC, or total allowable catch, for the species this year is about 2.3 million pounds – up 7% from last year, which had a limit of about 2.1 million pounds. The increased limit means regulators think the population in the Bering Sea is recovering, after total closures in 2021 and 2022. Though it’s still significantly lower than it used to be. In 2018 for example, the catch limit was about 4.3 million pounds of red king crab.
Ethan Nichols is the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s area management biologist for groundfish and shellfish in the Bering Sea. He said he’s glad they’re able to provide some openers, even though they’re small.
“Obviously, fishery closures are not what anybody wants and they’re extremely challenging for the industry,” Nichols said.
Nichols said prices at the dock – the processor price – were a record high of about $17 per pound for red king crab. Both Nichols and Prout expected the processor price to go up to $20 per pound this year.
“So small quota, but very high price. I think this fishery is definitely welcome news and welcome for the industry,” the biologist said.
Prout said his crew makes a bit more selling direct to consumers – at a great price – than to processors. Prout and his family sold the live ones for $24.99 per pound – less than half what it sells for in Kodiak’s Safeway grocery, where it’s listed for up to $59.99 per pound as of Nov. 5. Prout even gave discounts for $23.99 per pound if a customer bought 5 or more crabs.
“So it’s really only about 20% above the wholesale – what we’re getting at the dock,” he said. “Actually, recently, we’re getting record prices at the processor side of things. So we’re only making maybe a couple extra dollars by bringing them back here to Kodiak.”
He’s just glad that there is a season. Catching and selling the red king crab helps retain crew and pay for maintaining his boat.
“That’s the key word, is consistency, and that’s what we’re going for here,” Prout said. “And we’re glad the state, if they can do that, and keep these seasons, albeit smaller, but more consistent, that’s what the fleet would be very happy with.”
The next major commercial crab fishery, for snow crab, starts in January.
