A4 - Wednesday, October 26, 1983 - North Shore News strictly personal by Bob Hunter I NOTE with some despair that the Alaska King crab fishery has been closed in the waters off Kodiak Island and Bristol Bay. The supply of King crabs, once considered inexhausti- ble, has been steadily collaps- ing for over a decade.The situation has now reached the point where stocks are down to such a pathetic level that the surviving crabs are too sickly to reproduce. Scienusts found recently that every single female adult crab in a sample catch was barren. The various guesses about the cause of the pro- blem — parasitic diseases, losses to predatory fish, warmer walter temperature Ting very hollow indeed. My first glimpse of cap- tured King crabs came in 1971 at a little fishing port called Sand Point in the Shumagin Isiands, near the up of the Alaskan Peninsula. 1 was on a boat that dock- ed at the Sand Point wharf just aS a huge wooden box filled with King crabs was be- ing lifted out of the hold of a fishboat and trundied by forklift over to a nearby can- mery, where they were unceremoniously dumped with a pulpy eggshell- breaking sound, about a hun- dred at a time, down a chute that led to the inside of the building. Within the wooden boxes, SETTLEMENT the crabs plowed desperately back and forth, their eye stalks snapped, limbs twisted at horrible angles, pincers groping around helplessly. Their purplish shells were cracked like chinaware. There was a constant clack- ing sound as they writhed about. Smail bulbs of broken-off eyes floated in the brackish water. By then — keep in mind this was over ten years ago — the average King crab was a mere seven inches across the shell. That is, that’s the size they were being taken at. Before the crab ‘‘harvest”’ began some ten years earlier, it Was not uncommon to find King crabs that were as much as 61 inches across. That’s the size of a large table. Previously, these tncredi- ble creatures were known simply as Spider crabs. Needless to say, there was no market for them. But with the whales gone (the Alaskan coastlhne is littered) with abandoned whaling stations), the herring close to oblivion, the shrimp populations severely diminished and the halibut getting so scarce that boats were having to push in- to the uncharted waters to find them, the fishermen Band cautious SPOKESMEN FOR the Squamish Indian band are being cautious about long term effects ot Monday's historic set Hement of band land claims The News was unable to contact band offteials prior to press tume Tuesday after noon but publho comnts made by Offaly seo far ap pear toostow Chat the trad ts taking @ Caulious approach te the future Responding to what tas emerged as the mast con rroscr Saal aspect of thre mutt ribbon pas kage the awar Aor oh 26 acres of Aatibte sid Paar k oue. the Danred C tiet Cat care COW NERS OOF Cats tee tty Mhvte lift and Phere tae oe Beis are aes ef Ween Nite crane a soup warmed ta heey oa eye on thew poets Pe rag ae Stead Pes A er wee bat ce bee Da wenprpre ar ari. ‘ sit tee telveves about future Joo Mathias has said thal the band as not surc whether the park willremarn a public facih {voor mot The band has alsa not publicly addressed what it will do oowith the financial compcnsation it wall receme fon lands that Cannot be returned of wath oan ania lease thmoome from two parcels that are used by government AS) The tand ceturned ta the (Detains page Squamish reserve and to two others on the province is se alled cut off Lands that were stripped from reserves my Chis carly part of this oon tury because of dec lrnirng alive proparbateanys Mathias thas been cpucted as Nav ip Uhre Set tbe sre prt cores at tbe carved cof a bert Strap pte ated te teopees char thre eocorpreratieoty ot tye tered trae wen de acderip ter bias setile nie te wall ocveetarsese: rer tre prertiabrerty: sever other hispuates Mitiile othe tro ed NG dary ved he settbe rie ts wie u a Oy ae re nS ee oe his tre gine NE bere et cotta see be rinnse Vaataad oo baspetas by hee meats cs Dapsech con ow tia (i YON OO Vaasa ctaane bye tae et beeen. it Vache pe reset ves Bye, bye King Crab were getting desperate. When some marketing genius dreamed up the idea of giving the unwanted Spider crab an ‘‘edible’> new name, Alaska fishermen set oul en masse, to go after the unfortunate crustaceans. You didn’t have to be a mathematician to see that if the newly-christened Alaska Kings continued to be ex- ploited at the rate they had been for the first ten years of the harvest, they weren’t go- ing to fast very long. I’m amazed, actually, that any of them survived as long as 1983. Because even in 1971, workers at the crab cannery admitted privately that crabs were being taken that were only five and six across. I tried one night to liberate a King crab. Not that there was really any hope of heading off the disaster that was in the works. It was a symbolic gesture, and even that didn’t work. I sneaked up to one of the wooden bins beside the can- nery, and at the risk of losing a finger, reached in and grabbd one of the crabs by its backlegs, thus paralyzing the claws. | dashed across the wharf, the crab thrashing rather terrifyingly (they ARE powerful) and simply let go. Alas, the tide was out. The crab whirled down through the air at least 20 feet, hitting the inky water with a smack. Its limbs snap- ped off and its shell split open. So much for Crab Liberation. Too bad. The wheel of over-exploitation has now completed its inevitable turn. The Alaska King crab stocks are exhausted. One more resource bits the dust. Doesn’t anybody ever learn? inches DAVID H. OLSON, D.C. is pleased to announce the opening of his new office for the practice of chiropractic at 3048 Edgemont Blivd., North Van Mon. Wed. Fri. Tues. Thurs. 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