Executive Summary 2011 Saint Matthew Island Blue King Crab Stock Assessment

• Main Authors: W. Gaeuman, Stock Blue King Crab, Paralithodes Platypus, Saint Matthew Isl
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Tac; blue king crab
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.396.9258; http://www.alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/npfmc/PDFdocuments/resources/SAFE/CrabSAFE/912Chapters/SMBKC_2012.pdf

2. Catches: Peak historical harvest was 9.454 million pounds (4,288 t) in 1983/84. The fishery was closed for 10 years after the stock was declared overfished in 1999. Fishing resumed in 2009/10 with a fishery‐ reported retained catch of 0.461 million pounds (209 t), less than half the 1.167 million pound (529.3 t) TAC. The TAC was increased to 1.600 million pounds (725.7 t) in 2010/11 and to 2.539 million pounds (1,151 t) in 2011/12, but reported catches again fell short at 1.264 million pounds (573.3 t; 79 % of the TAC) and 1.881 million pounds (853.2 t; 74 % of the TAC), respectively. Total male discard mortality in the 2011/12 directed fishery is estimated from ADF&G crab‐observer data at 0.217 million pounds (98.3 t), assuming 20 % handling mortality. Male bycatch mortality in the 2011/12 groundfish fisheries is estimated from NMFS observer data at 0.0009 million pounds (0.4 t). 3. Stock biomass: Following a period of low numbers in the wake of a hypothesized 1998/99 stock collapse (Zheng and Kruse 2002), trawl‐survey indices of SMBKC stock abundance and biomass have generally increased in recent years, with 2011 estimated mature male biomass at 21.07 million pounds (9,557 t; estimated CV 0.53), the second highest in the 35‐year time series used in this assessment. Although the 2012 estimate of 12.46 million pounds (5,652 t; estimated CV 0.33) represents a marked decrease from the 2011 estimate, it is still among the highest values since 1988 and well above the post‐