Dutch Harbor Update | Summer Snow Crabbing?

The opilio season just won’t end this year. The Deadliest Catch is turning out to be the Longest Catch. ADFG has just announced the second extension this season, which allows the boats to fish until June 15th. That’s right! They are winter crabbing in the summertime. Only a quarter of the quota is left, so it should be over soon. Its still snowing in St. Paul and the ice pack is still in the harbor according to the Time Bandit’s Twit Pic. This is definitely one crab season that few fishermen will forget. I embedded some other twitter posts to give you an idea of who is still fishing. The Time Bandit is still at it and it sounds like the Northwestern got more quota. The season is now scheduled to end June 15th. I wonder how all of this will affect the summer salmon tender season for most of these boats?

St Paul Harbor pic.twitter.com/gxmAOB7H
— Johnathan Hillstrand (@captjohnathan) May 14, 2012

Off boat but still dreaming about ice...
— Bill Wichrowski (@captwildbill) May 13, 2012

Just got married 12 hours ago and I'm going fishing again. You sure some of you guys wanna be fisherman?
— Jake Anderson (@JakeVAnderson) May 13, 2012

https://twitter.com/MikeFourtner/status/201934571992924160

Ice is suppose to clear island this week 🙂
— Johnathan Hillstrand (@captjohnathan) May 15, 2012

"Jr., must be nice talking smack on Twitter while others are actually out working." ~ Elliott via satellite phone http://t.co/MuJm0LTI
— F/V Ramblin' Rose (@fvramblinrose) May 3, 2012

https://twitter.com/DeckbossEH/status/200087066493722624

It’s already been a long snow crab season, but it’s about to be longer. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Monday that the season will be extended by two weeks in some areas, moving the overall end date to mid-June.

Heavy ice cover in the Bering Sea periodically forced fishermen off the grounds this winter and almost a quarter of the allowable harvest remains uncaught. The unprecedented move by Fish and Game should give crabbers time to bring in the remaining 20 million pounds.

The fishery was scheduled to close on May 31, but with the extension, areas west of 171 degrees will be open through June 15.

via Ice Forces Snow Crab Season Extension.