King and snow crab populations in the Bering Sea have plummeted ahead of the harvest season, some by 99% compared to previous years.

The winter commercial crabbing season in the Norton Sound will begin February 25 with a quota less than half of its 2018 figure and a third of the 2017 quota.

Large number of Red King Crabs (Paralithodes camtschaticus) found on the beach during an extreme low tide. According to fisheries researchers, crabs move to shallow water to hatch and release eggs.

“This is unprecedented in the United States for a mature, rationalized fishery to suffer a stock collapse, in part due to climate change,” the executive director of the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers said.

Special report: Ocean warming has put at risk the historic Alaska crab fishery. After a dismal summer survey, state biologists slashed this year’s harvest of snow crab by nearly 90% from 2021 levels.

This season’s quotas of snow crab catch were slashed by nearly 90%, a body blow to the small island government on St. Paul, where the crab are processed — and taxed.