Effect of bitter crab disease on rebuilding in Alaska Tanner crab stocks

Eastern Bering Sea (EBS) Tanner crab Chionoecetes bairdi stocks were declared overfished in 1996 and were closed to commercial fishing between 1997 and 2004. Subsequent management was based on a rebuilding plan using criteria from the previous US federal fisheries management plan (FMP). Under the revised 2008 FMP, reference points changed for mature biomass ( male only vs. total), as well as catch levels ( total vs. retained), resulting in different rebuilding criteria. We performed a rebuilding analysis using age- ,sex-, and size-structured simulations incorporating recent changes in overfishing definitions. Specifically, we compared the potential effect of additional mortality that bitter crab disease could have on rebuilding performance of lightly infected EBS and heavily infected southeast Alaska Tanner crab stocks. The results suggest that under the assumed recruitment scenario, the new control rules are adequate to rebuild the depleted lightly infected EBS stock, but not the heavily infected southeast Alaska stock.