King and snow crab populations in the Bering Sea have plummeted ahead of the harvest season, some by 99% compared to previous years.

Just at a time when crab stocks in the central Gulf of Alaska are taking off, likely in part due to crashing cod populations, a new study funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows that ocean acidification is damaging the shells of young Dungeness crab in the Pacific Northwest, an impact that scientists did not expect until much later this century.

The quota for the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands crab fisheries will be set by Alaska Department of Fish and Game in mid-October

The winter commercial crabbing season in the Norton Sound will begin February 25 with a quota less than half of its 2018 figure and a third of the 2017 quota.

Large number of Red King Crabs (Paralithodes camtschaticus) found on the beach during an extreme low tide. According to fisheries researchers, crabs move to shallow water to hatch and release eggs.

For decades, the crab piled up in fishing boats like gold coins hauled from a rich and fertile sea. But the very ocean that nursed these creatures may prove to be this industry’s undoing.Scientists fear ocean acidification will drive the collapse of Alaska's iconic crab fishery.