Alaskan king crab fishing is carried out during the fall in the waters off the coast of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. The commercial catch is shipped worldwide. Large numbers of king crab are also caught in Russian and international waters.
In 1980, at the peak of the king crab industry, Alaskan fisheries produced up to 200,000,000 pounds (91,000,000 kg) of crab. However, by 1983, the total size of the catch had dropped by up to 90% in some places.[1] Several theories for the precipitous drop in the crab population have been proposed, including overfishing, warmer waters, and increased fish predation.[2] As a result, the current season is very short and in the 2010 season, only 24,000,000 pounds (11,000,000 kg) of red king crab were landed.[3]
Alaskan crab fishing is very dangerous, and the fatality rate among the fishermen is about 80 times the fatality rate of the average worker. It is suggested that, on average, one crab fisherman dies weekly during the seasons.[4]
- ^ Commercial Fisheries from Alaska Department of Fish and Game
- ^ S. Forrest Blau (1997). "Alaska King Crabs: Wildlife Notebook Series". Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Archived from the original on 2010-12-27. Retrieved 2006-06-14.
- ^ "National Marine Fisheries Landing Data". 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-03-15. Retrieved 2012-05-29.
- ^ Christie, Les: America’s most dangerous jobs, Retrieved on April 28, 2007