WASHINGTON: The US fishing industry is expected to suffer more than a billion dollars in losses after Alaska shuts down its snow crab season in the Bering Sea for the first time in the country’s history, Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers executive director Jamie Goen told Sputnik.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced last week that the US snow crab season in the Bering Sea will be closed this season due to a population decline in the region. It also said the red king crab season was going to be closed for the second year in a row.
“We’re estimating the economic losses now that we’ve had two years of either closed fisheries, or record low harvests, at over US$500 million that our fishermen are losing.
“And then when you consider the processors and fishing communities and support businesses, like fill docks and shipyards, we’re estimating that impact is over a billion US dollars,” Goen said.
The snow crab harvest of £5.6 million in the Bering Sea last year was the smallest in more than 40 years, media reported.
Goen said the historic decision by Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game will likely sink family businesses considering there is no immediate federal relief programme to aid US fisherman in tight circumstances.
“We have 60 vessels in our fleet and so many of those aren’t going to be able to weather this.
“The US government does not have relief for fishermen like it does for farmers in the US. When farmers have a crop failure, they get immediate financial relief. We don’t have a programme like that for our US fishermen,” Goen said.
There is a state financial relief programme available for fisheries in Alaska, but it takes two to four years for them to get approved, Goen said.
“If it’s a small family business, they can’t weather two to four years without an income, so many of them are going to be facing bankruptcy this year, it’s going to be devastating for our fleet,” Goen said.
The Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers meeting trade association met with lawmakers in Congress on Monday to lobby for immediate financial relief, Goen said.
“We want a programme on par with what farmers have in crop failure, or like what communities have after a hurricane or a flood comes through where they get immediate financial relief through programmes like FEMA, or for farmers it’s through the United States Department of Agriculture, USDA,” Goen said.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game said in a press release that it understands the closing of this season’s snow crab season in the Bering Sea will have substantial impacts on US harvesters, industry, and communities, but this measure was necessary for long-term conservation and sustainability of crab stocks in the area.
Efforts to understand the decline of the crab population in the region are underway, the state agency said. – BERNAMA
