BSFRF is proud to collaborate with researchers from NOAA’s Kodiak Lab on cutting-edge work to better understand Bristol Bay red king crab (BBR) movements and inform fishery management decisions.
Our cooperative research partners, including NOAA’s Leah Zacher and affiliate Sean Hardison, have been working hard to integrate data from BSFRF tagging studies with survey observations to model seasonal crab movements and habitat preferences in the eastern Bering Sea (Hardison et al., in prep). This work demonstrates the power of combining data from different sources to generate insights that wouldn’t be possible with any single approach.
The research is helping us answer a critical question: where do red king crab go between the summer survey and the fall fishery? By analyzing movement patterns from tagged crabs, the study has identified key environmental factors that are associated with where red king crab concentrate during different seasons, including water temperature, depth, and tidal currents.
These findings are already contributing to practical applications in management. The BSFRF identified that the SW quadrant of the Red King Crab Savings Area (RKCSA) contains lower densities of BBR than other quadrants (see Figure). Motivated by this finding, at the December 2025 NPFMC meeting, the pollock industry voluntarily agreed to a dynamic, triangular closure area in the NE corner of the RKCSA (Zagorski et al., 2025), that is expected to contain relatively high crab densities, the avoidance of which will help reduce interactions between pollock fishing operations and BBR and support the recovery of this iconic crab species.
The southwest quadrant of the RKCSA reflects lower densities of BBR, as indicated by recent federal (NOAA) and industry (BSFRF) surveys.
To see more related to this discussion and presentation, please see the NPFMC December 2025 agenda under agenda item B9.
References:
Hardison, S.B., Fedewa, E.J., Zacher, L., Thorson, J.T., Ryznar, E.R., Kearney, K.A., Hennessey, S.M., Daly, B.J., Goodman, S., Litzow, M.A. and Mueter, F. (2025) Movement-informed projections of Bristol Bay red king crab seasonal distribution to support spatial management decisions. EcoEvoRxiv. [Preprint]. https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/10295/
Zagorski, S., Mize, J., Yeager, C. and Estabrooks, A. (2025) Bering Sea Pollock Industry Report on Dynamic Spatial Closure Measures for 2026 A Season. North Pacific Fishery Management Council, December 2025. Agenda Item B9. Available at: https://meetings.npfmc.org/CommentReview/DownloadFile?p=134d39f0-da87-4d82-ae74-67ecad38c3e5.pdf&fileName=PPT%20B9%20PTR%20Dynamic%20Closure.pdf