The idea to rebuild wild crab stocks using hatcheries comes from efforts in Alaska during the late 1970s and 1980s to use large scale salmon hatcheries to rebuild collapsed salmon stocks in parts of the state. Wild salmon were (and still are) harvested for their eggs and sperm, and the incubated eggs are then incubated and hatched in the hatchery. When the salmon are big enough to stand a reasonable chance of survival in the big deep ocean, they were released back into the wild. The technique is called salmon ranching.  It is not the same as salmon farming. There is a HUGE difference between salmon farming and salmon ranching. First and foremost, salmon farming is a process that keeps the salmon in pens until they are big enough to harvest for food. Such salmon are never released into the wild and bear no resemblance to wild salmon. Salmon farming, and all finfish farming for that matter, is illegal in Alaska. Salmon ranching is a technique that replenishes or enhances wild salmon stocks.

In the case of crab hatcheries, the crab eggs would come from wild crab and the resulting progeny would be released into the wild to rebuild their natural, native poulations. However this research program is years away from any decision to release crab into the wild. And anyway, that is a decision for resource managers, policy makers, and the people of Alaska.

The goals of this research project are far more modest. At the moment, scientists and university graduate students and technicians are only concerned with trying to understand what is needed to culture wild crab in a hatchey setting. Turns out, there is a lot to learn. Right now, scientists are busy trying to understand how to house and care for the adult egg-bearing crab that were harvested from the wild, as well as how to feed and care for the millions of hatched larvae the crabs produce. Later on, scientists will simulate wild conditions at the hatchery to see how the young crab fare. What scientists learn in this effort will help Alaskans make informed decisions about whether to pursue hatchery rehabilitation of wild crab stocks.

 Why is this program even needed, what's wrong with Alaska's crab?  Most crab stocks in Alaska are doing just fine. But two stocks of crab are not doing well. One is red king crab stocks around Kodiak Island. Once one of the largest crab fisheries on the planet, Kodiak red king crab stocks collapsed in 1982, and fishing for them has been closed ever since. The other stock is blue king crabs around the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea. This crab population (actually there are two genetically-distinct stocks of blue king crab in these waters) has been low for years as well. Despite management efforts to encourage recovery of both Kodiak red and Pribilof blue king crabs, the stocks remain low. It may be that enhancment and rehabilitation efforts can help them recover.