The BSFRF has been conducting and supporting pop-up archival satellite tagging efforts to assess seasonal movement of BBRKC since 2019. Dr. Leah Zacher of the Kodiak Shellfish Lab has taken the lead on understanding BBRKC distribution and seasonal movement, and with support from the BSFRF 685 pop-up archival satellite tags have successfully transmitted information to date, with more tags being deployed and popping-up soon.

The BSFRF has led several charters where tagging was either a main or a sub focus, and tags have also been deployed during the crab cost recovery fishery, as well as during the summer NMFS Eastern Bering Sea Trawl Survey. While both mature male and female BBRKC have been tagged, the focus have been on males.

The figures below show all tags deployment and pop-up location (A) , and movement of males from June to October (2019,2020,2021,2022 2023; B), and October to June (2022-2023; C). Assessing and understanding the pop-up data is still underway, as there is a lot of data to analyze and understand, and results will be shared as they become available.