The Alaska fishing industry is on the brink of financial collapse as the snow crab season has been canceled for the second year in a row due to a significant drop in population.
While the fishing community reels from the loss, scientists and officials are scrambling to understand why an estimated 10 billion crabs, a staggering 90% of the population, vanished from the Bering Sea.
Gabriel Prout, a crab fisherman, said that despite a small haul of king crab, his business is still in survival mode. The previous year’s cancelation of the snow crab season left the fishing community confused. This year, panic set in as fishermen face the possibility of economic ruin. Alaska fisheries produce 60% of the nation’s seafood, and the loss of the snow crab industry threatens to destroy the state’s economy.
Joshua Songstad, a crab fisherman who lost almost everything, now finds himself without an income. Fisheries biologist Ben Daly from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game expressed his disbelief at the massive snow crab population collapse, saying, “We looked at it, and it was almost a flat line.”
In response to the catastrophic decline in snow crab populations, the fishing industry and scientific community are looking to find ways to prevent similar disasters in the future.
The reality of the situation is that the future of the fishing industry in Alaska is at stake. For fourth-generation fishermen like Songstad, the fear is that the industry, which has been in their families for generations, may not be there for their children. As a dying breed, he said, “If we keep going the way we’re going, there’s not going to be any of us left.”
