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Wholesale prices for Bristol Bay red king crab are down 18 percent compared to a year ago, but crab brokers are upbeat over the domestic demand for this succulent seafood.

"The domestic demand for fresh (Bering Sea red king crab) is phenomenal," said Ed Donaldson, a partner in The Crab Broker, one of the nation's largest crab dealers.

For 17 years, Donaldson and business partner Rob George have traveled to Dutch Harbor to watch the harvest arrive from the Bering Sea and spend time with processors, skippers and crews.

Since the season began Oct. 15, The Crab Broker has shipped out some 18,000 pounds of fresh crab from Dutch Harbor to domestic markets, Donaldson said Oct. 26.

"Today we have about 10,000 pounds of fresh leaving, and we will do the same tomorrow and exceed that the next day," he said.

The Inter-Cooperative Exchange, which represents nearly 70 percent of the king and snow crab caught in the Bering Sea, said earlier in October that crab harvesters had approved an advance price of $4.67 a pound for red king crab.

ICE has said the final price would be determined after sufficient sales have been completed.

On its retail side, The Crab Broker is offering on its Web site a 4-pound package of fresh king crab for $119.

Two Anchorage seafood retailers also were offering fresh king crab. New Sagaya had 5-pound gift packages for $149.95 and 10th & M Seafoods was running a special of 10 pounds of jumbo king crab legs for $244.95.

Forrest Bowers, the state's area management biologist for shellfish in Dutch Harbor, said the fishery has been going well so far, with 67 vessels participating, compared to 77 vessels a year ago.

Under the controversial crab rationalization program, which has privatized the fishery, a portion of the quota is leased out from quota shareholders to others, who pay as much as 75 percent of the price they receive in lease fees.

This cost has resulted in lower pay to crewmen aboard vessels carrying a substantial amount of leased quota. The entire program is now under a review by federal managers.

While the popular Discovery Channel show "The Deadliest Catch" has attracted much attention to the crab fishery, Donaldson said he thinks the rising demand for Alaska's red king crab has a lot to do with marketing, promotion and education of the public on the value of the catch.

"Our target market is quality operators interested in the best king crab that comes out of the ocean, and a sustainable fishery," he said. "Not only are we selling crab, but we are selling the Alaska program, that the crab resource is well managed, and that has been embraced with open arms."

The total allowable catch, which is set by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to assure a sustainable fishery, is 16.9 million pounds for the current season, including 1.6 million pounds of community development quota reserved for six organizations established to strengthen Alaska's coastal community economies.

A year ago, the fleet harvested more than 20 million pounds of red king crab, but 2009 stock surveys indicated a lower harvest was necessary to sustain the fishery.

The lower harvest potential aside, Donaldson said lower prices were triggered by lower demand from Japan, traditionally a strong market for Alaska's red king crab, and a survey conducted in Russia from July 28 through Sept. 2, which found dramatic attrition in stocks.

That survey showed there was 39 percent attrition of legal male crab, 54 percent attrition in juvenile crab, and 84 percent attrition of female crab, Donaldson said.

That was a clear one-year indicator, especially of female crab, "of the complete demise of the resource" in Russia," he said. In past years, king crab from Russian fisheries has been a fierce competitor with Alaska king crab.

So far the fishery, which lasts through Jan. 15, is going well, Bowers said.

The red king crab are weighing an average of just over 6 pounds, compared to an average of 6.4 pounds last year, he said. Bowers attributed this to the recruitment of younger male king crab, which weigh less than the older males, into the legal size class.

Fishermen are catching an average of 23 crab per pot, which was the season average last year, he said.

Through Oct. 26, some 3 million pounds of crab had been landed, he said.