A long, slow, cold slog to catch remnants of crab allotment

摘要

Snow crab more than lived up to its name this year. Record-setting ice in the Bering Sea meant an terminable opilio season. By the end of April, the fishing grounds near the Pribilof Islands remained frozen over, and the fleet still had 25 million pounds of crab left to harvest. "It's been one of the hardest seasons I can remember," said one skipper. "A lot of guys are worried that they won't be able to catch all their crab." At press time, 50 of the fleet's 72 registered vessels were still fishing (or trying to). The hope was that ice would recede and the fleet would pull up the remainder of the 89-million-pound quota.