Kodiak’s commercial Tanner crab fishery opened Jan. 15 at noon.
The Kodiak Crab Alliance Cooperative, which represents the local fleet, negotiated a different kind of deal this year. The cooperative is delivering between 70 and 80 percent of the total harvest to one processor that offered the best price. Usually they negotiate with all of the processing companies at once for an acceptable price range, and different vessels deliver to different plants.
Alaska Pacific Seafoods, which is owned by North Pacific Seafoods, will pay $5.75 per pound for the lion’s share of the guideline harvest level, which is 770,000 pounds between the Kodiak District and the south side of the Alaska Peninsula. The rest of the crab can then be sold as part of the usual agreements between fishermen selling to their respective processors.
That means the 2025 Kodiak Tanner crab fishery is likely worth at least $3.1 million.
The dockside price per pound is about $2 more than it was last year, when the species sold for about $3.70 per pound, when fishermen harvested three million pounds. The crabs being harvested this year are the last part of a massive cohort first observed in 2018 that supported seasons since 2022.
Fishermen expect the season to last about a week or less, depending on weather. There are 69 boats registered to fish for Tanner crab this season.
Biologists with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game are unsure if there will be enough of a population for a season next year, but will make a decision after the summer trawl survey.
