State ended summer Dungeness season early last Saturday

The summer Dungeness crab commercial season ended Saturday, with reports of low catch rates.

“On a regionwide level, there are no bright spots, and generally regionwide catch rates have been down,” said Joseph Stratman, the lead Southeast crab biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

It was a shorter-than-typical summer Dungeness season for the 201 permitted crabbers in Southeast. The department trimmed about two weeks from the season after data collected from the first week of the season, which started June 15, pointed to an estimated full-season harvest of about 2 million pounds...