Alaska Snow Crab (2024)

Alaska snow crab. Credit: NOAA Fisheries

Alaska snow crab. Credit: NOAA Fisheries

• According to the 2022stock assessment, Alaska snow crab isoverfished, but not subject to overfishing based on 2022catch data. Summary stock assessment information can be found on Stock SMART.

• Alaska snow crabs have a hard rounded shell, four pairs of walking legs, and one pair of claws.
• On top they are brownish in color and underneath they are lighter. Their eyes are green or greenish blue.
• Males and females can be distinguished by the shape of their abdominal flaps. On males this flap is triangular, and on females it is broadly rounded.

• Male Alaska snow crab can reach 6 inches in shell width but females seldom grow larger than 3 inches.
• Scientists estimate that snow crabs may live for up to 20 years.
• Females can carry up to nearly 100,000 eggs, depending on their size. They hatch their larvae in the spring when there is plenty of food in the water column.
• When the eggs hatch, the larvae look like tiny shrimp.
• The larvae feed on phytoplankton and zooplankton before metamorphosing into tiny crabs and settling on the ocean bottom.
• Alaska snow crabs can only grow by molting (shedding their old shell and growing another).
• After molting snow crabs are soft and vulnerable to predators until their new shell hardens.
• When they have reached sexual maturity, both females and males undergo a “terminal molt,” after which they never molt again.
• Snow crabs will eat almost anything they can catch and break open with their claws, including fish, shrimp, crabs, worms, clams, brittle stars, snails, algae, and sponges. They will also scavenge on anything dead they find.
• Seals, sea otters, octopi, other crabs, and a wide variety of fish prey on Alaska snow crabs.

• NOAA Fisheries, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Gamemanage the Alaska snow crab fishery.
• Managed under the Fishery Management Plan for Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crabs, which defers management of crab fisheries to the State of Alaska with federal oversight. State regulations must comply with the fishery management plan, the national standards of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and other applicable federal laws:
  • The Alaska snow crab fishery was closed for fishing years 2022 and 2023. The fishing year runs from July 1 - June 30.
  • The Alaska snow crab fishery is currently managed according to the “three S’s” – size, sex, and season. Only male crabs of a certain size may be harvested, and fishing is not allowed during mating and molting periods. These measures help ensure that crabs are able to reproduce and replace the ones that are harvested.
  • Every year, managers set the harvest limit for the next fishing season using the most recent estimates of crab abundance.
  • Managers allocate shares of the harvest among harvesters, processors, and coastal communities through the crab rationalization program, which was implemented in 2005 to address economic, safety, and environmental issues in the fishery. This program includes a community development quota, which protects community interests by allowing community groups 10 percent of the harvest. They’re given the opportunity to purchase shares in the fishery before the shares are offered for sale outside the community.
  • Vessels carry vessel monitoring systems (satellite communications systems used to monitor fishing activities) and must report their landings electronically.
  • Fishermen must install escape panels and rings on their pots to prevent ghost fishing (when lost pots continue to capture and kill species) and to reduce bycatch.
  • Managers monitor catch in real time and are able to close the fishery when the harvest limit is reached.
  • A rebuilding plan to rebuild the stock to the target population level is in place with a target date of 2029.
• Observers are required on 20 percent of the vessels in the fishery. They collect data on catch and bycatch and document any violations of fishing regulations.

• In 2022, commercial landings of Alaska snow crab totaled 5.5million pounds and were valued at 24.5million,according to the NOAA Fisheries commercial fishing landings database.
• Gear types, habitat impacts, and bycatch:
  • The fishing fleet is made up of a variety of vessels, from small inshore vessels to large-scale “super crabbers” that fish in the Bering Sea.
  • Commercial fishermen use crab pots to harvest snow crab.
  • They bait the pots with chopped herring, mackerel, or squid and lower the pots over silt and mud ocean bottoms. After a couple days, fishermen haul the pots back on board, empty them, and sort the catch – then start all over again.
  • Crab pots can unintentionally catch female crabs (which may not be harvested), males under the commercial size, and non-targeted crab species as well as a small number of other species including octopus, Pacific cod, Pacific halibut, other flatfish, sponges, coral, and sea stars.
  • Management requires fishermen to install escape panels and rings on their pots to prevent ghost fishing (when lost pots continue to capture and kill species) and to reduce bycatch.

Last updated by NOAA Fisheries on 04/02/2024

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Is Alaska Snow Crab Sustainable?

U.S. wild-caught Alaska snow crab is a smart seafood choice because it is sustainably managed and responsibly harvested under U.S. regulations.

Research & Data