After another rocky start to this year’s snow crab season, the principal takeaway from the majority of harvesters is that 2024 appears to be a bounce-back year for the all-important fishery.
The FFAW-Unifor, the union representing Newfoundland and Labrador fishermen, has stated that this year’s season was better for most of its members, with good catch rates, large crab and a shore price well above 2023.
With the majority of snow crab fisheries in the Atlantic region now closed, harvesters have now moved on to other species and are hoping this year is a harbinger of future snow crab seasons to come.
While there is a sense of optimism surrounding the snow crab fishery on this side of the continent, the same certainly cannot be said to the northwest — the Barents Sea in particular.
As Navigator readers are aware, the once lucrative Alaskan snow or opilio crab fishery has essentially been shut down for the last few seasons due to a drastic drop in once abundant stock levels.
In 2018–2019, the snow crab population experienced a decline of greater than 90 per cent. Previously, snow crab supported one of the most valuable commercial fisheries in this region. The annual vessel value for this fishery was estimated to be $227 million.
As one can imagine, this has had devastating socio-economic impacts on the region. The closures have had a direct impact on local communities that depend on snow crab fishing for their livelihoods. This includes not only the fishermen but also those involved in processing, transportation and other related industries. The economic ripple effects have been substantial, leading to job losses and reduced income for many families.
As harvesters in the northwest have struggled with the snow crab closures, researchers have been frantically trying to get a handle on what happened to the valuable and sought-after crustaceans.
Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently announced that they think they have discovered why snow crab suddenly disappeared from the once abundant Barents Sea fishing grounds.
Researchers have attributed the abrupt collapse of snow crab in Alaska to something called borealization, an ecological shift from Arctic to sub-Arctic conditions in the southeastern Bering Sea due to human-caused climate change.
NOAA explained that cold-adapted species like snow crab are well suited to Arctic conditions. However, when borealization occurs, the ecosystem shifts to subarctic conditions that are less conducive to snow crab survival.
“What is particularly noteworthy is these boreal conditions associated with the snow crab collapse are more than 200 times more likely to occur in the present climate (1.0 degree –1.5 degree of warming rate) than in the preindustrial era,” said Mike Litzow, lead author and director of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Kodiak Lab.
“Even more concerning is that Arctic conditions conducive for snow crabs to retain their dominant role in the southeastern Bering Sea are expected to continue to decline in the future.”
With further warming expected in the next 10 to 20 years, results indicate that the Arctic characteristics necessary for the snow crab stock may become scarce in the southeastern Bering Sea. Litzow and his team expect to see Arctic conditions in only eight per cent of future years in the southeastern Bering Sea. This percentage could decrease with higher warming rates expected in the future. If this occurs, it could potentially signal the northward displacement of the important commercial fishery from its traditional grounds.
However, all might not be lost to our fishing brethren to the west.
In 2022, there was some good news for Alaskan snow crab. During the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s annual bottom trawl survey, scientists observed a return to cooler water temperatures more typical of historic times. These cooler conditions benefited snow crab.
Scientists saw an increased number of juvenile snow crab in their survey. This provides hope for a short-term (in about five years) recovery in the abundance of the larger animals that are harvested by the fishery.
These findings are dependent on climate model projections of future climate change. Climate models have performed well in predicting average global temperature since the 1970s, providing confidence in the use of climate models to project future climate change. Even though climate model projections are less certain over regional scales as is the case here, scientists don’t expect these Arctic conditions to persist in the region over the long term.
“It’s really important that fishermen, scientists, communities and resource managers recognize that one of the most productive marine ecosystems in the world is changing — faster than anyone expected,” Litzow said. “The time to act is now to think about how we are all going to adapt.”
So, what are the takeaways from the plight of the Alaskan snow crab harvesting sector? The fishing industry in this region is also witnessing warming ocean temperatures — notably the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Should the Department of Fisheries and Oceans be collaborating with its NOAA colleagues on the borealization phenomenon? It appears that might be the prudent thing to do in order to avoid the same thing potentially happening to the valuable snow crab stocks off our shores.
The days of debating the existence of climate change are long gone. It is a global reality we are faced with and the more information and implements we have in our toolboxes to predict and combat potential hazardous temperature changes, the better.
Alaska has learned some hard lessons recently and we need to harness that knowledge and use it to conserve and protect the multi-million-dollar crab fishery we have come to rely on.
