Dungeness crab fishing is on for a full fall season that began Oct. 1 and extends through Nov. 30.

The commercial Dungeness fishery opened for 55 days this summer, beginning June 15 and closing Aug. 9, six days earlier than usual.

Across Southeast, 162 Dungeness fishery permit holders this summer harvested 567,839 crab totaling 1.18 million pounds. Participation and harvest were relatively low, but fishermen earned a good average price of $4.06 per pound, up from an average of $3.13 last season and $2.12 the year before, according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game data.

In August, state fishery managers cut short the usual two-month-long summer season by six days as the harvest was projected to come in below the department’s 2.25-million-pound threshold for running a full summer season.

Crabbers are getting a full, two-month fall season because managers found that fishermen caught and released a lot of soft-shell Dungeness during the first week of fishing this summer, contributing to the lower-than-anticipated harvest.

“Based on data from port sampling, fish tickets and interviews with permit holders, the department has determined that soft-shelled crab not retained during the first week of the season were a contributing factor in failing to meet the 2.25-million-pound harvest projection threshold,” Fish and Game said in an announcement this fall.

That leaves more mature crabs for the fall harvest.

Newly molted crabs have soft shells that are not favorable for most markets. Handling soft-shell crab also results in higher death rates for the crabs tossed back into the water.