Bristol Bay red king crab opens Oct. 15 with a 3.41 million-pound catch

Bristol Bay red king crab opens at noon on Oct. 15, 2026. An Alaska Department of Fish and Game advisory announcement dated Oct. 6 says 2026 survey estimates of mature female biomass and effective spawning biomass are both above the thresholds required to open Area T. The fishery closes at 11:59 p.m. Jan. 15, 2027.

The total allowable catch is 3.41 million pounds: 3.069 million pounds of individual fishing quota and 341,000 pounds of community development quota. ADF&G and the National Marine Fisheries Service completed the analysis from the 2026 NMFS trawl survey.

Registration runs through the Dutch Harbor ADF&G office. A person with a current Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission Bristol Bay king crab interim-use card, K09T or K91T, must be there. Fishermen may take part in both the IFQ and CDQ fisheries, with a separate permit card for each. There is no crab pot limit and no buoy-tag requirement for this fishery. Vessels may register up to 10 groundfish pots, and Pacific cod kept for bait has to be reported on the fish ticket at landing.

A current Coast Guard commercial fishing vessel safety decal and an activated NMFS-approved vessel monitoring system are required before registration. The operator must call the Coast Guard at (206) 815-6842 at least 24 hours before leaving port with crab pots. Gear left unattended in the registration area for more than 14 days has to come out of the water or go into long-term storage, and the vessel registration is invalidated after 14 days of inactivity. Contacts are Regional Shellfish Manager Mark Stichert, (907) 486-1842, and Acting Area Management Biologist Asia Beder, (907) 581-1239.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: ADF&G — Bristol Bay Red King Crab Season Opens October 15 (PDF) (advisory announcement, Oct. 6, 2026).