Purpose and Need

The purpose of the amendment was to eliminate trawl activities in areas of importance to blue king crab and Korean hair crab stocks so that these stocks may build to and be maintained at exploitable levels. In addition, the amendment would reduce bycatch of juvenile halibut and crab, and mitigate any unobserved mortality or habitat modification that occurred due to trawling.   

Analysis

A 106-page EA/RIR (final draft dated September 12, 1994, the Final is dated November 1994) was prepared for this amendment.  Eleven alternatives including the status quo were considered.  The other alternatives that were not chosen would have established different area closure configurations or established a closure based on a trigger level of crab bycatch. Through spatial display of NMFS annual trawl surveys; foreign, JV, and domestic groundfish observer data; and the directed commercial crab catch, the analysis provided an understanding of blue king crab habitat, trawl fishing effort and the distribution or feeding areas of other marine species.  Analysis of this information was used to delineate an area for closures that provides trawl access to the majority of groundfish resources in the Pribilof Islands area, yet affords habitat protection for blue king crab.  The boundary selected does not encompass the entire range of blue king crab in the area, but does surround the habitat with highest blue king crab concentrations.  Included in the boundary is habitat vital to juvenile blue king crab, populations of red king crab, populations of Korean hair crab, and some of the area important to foraging sea birds and marine mammals. The boundary in Alternative 8 was selected to allow trawl access to the edge of the 100 m contour and the groundfish resources to the east and north of the Pribilof Islands.  The boundary was also drawn with straight edges and as few corners as possible in order to facilitate ease of closure enforcement.  

Regulation Summary

All trawling is prohibited at all times in the EEZ within the area bounded by a straight line connecting the following pairs of coordinates in the following order:

(57E 57.0', 168E 30.0')

(56E 55.2', 168E 30.0')

(56E 48.0', 169E   2.4')

(56E 34.2', 169E   2.4')

(56E 30.0', 169E 25.2')

(56E 30.0', 169E 44.1')

(56E 55.8', 170E 21.6')

(57E 13.8', 171E   0.0')

(57E 57.0', 171E   0.0') 

(57E 57.0', 168E 30.0')

Results

Since the amendment was approved, most crab stocks have declined.  Blue king crab declined from a recent peak in 1995 (8.4 million crabs) to very low levels (3.2 million crabs). Hair crabs similarly declined from 11.8 million crabs in 1995 to only 5.6 million crabs in 1999.  Other crab stocks (e.g., Tanner and snow crabs) utilizing the conservation area have declined over the time period as well and are now considered overfished. Pribilof Island red king crabs have increased and are well above target biomass.