Overheated planet update: Record-breaking ice in Bering Sea results in loss of six percent of crab pots

Snow Crab Gear Losses Total $1M

Heavy ice in the Bering Sea this winter carried away a mountain of crab gear. Fishermen lost about 800 pots over the course of the snow crab season, or about six percent of their total gear.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Britta Baechler says that’s an unusually large number.

“Just for comparison, in the past two snow crab seasons, gear loss rates were between 1-2 percent.”

This year’s record-breaking sea ice is the primary culprit...

In addition to the immediate economic losses for fishermen, the so-called ‘ghost pots’ also cost the fishery in the long run. Lost pots can continue fishing the seafloor for months, trapping crab and other marine critters. Fish and Game biometrician Bill Gaeumen says it’s hard to say for sure what happens to those animals, but, “common sense suggests that if you trap animals in a place where they can’t go about their business for long enough, it’s probably not good.”