Back ground

Crabbing has been a ruff and rigorous job sense the mib 1900's. Some of the most fertile waters are of the coasts of Alaska, Japan and Russia. Crabbing started of with high profits for fishermen all across the board. Japan was the first to start the hunt in the 1940's. Shortly after the USSR and the Americas started fishing also as the hunt for crabs exploded. Dutch Harbor Alaska produced one of the highest yields on record of 33 million pounds of crab. At this point in crab history the numbers of crabs being landed start to take off. By 1981 the industry reached its peak yield of 200 million pounds of crab landed on all shores. The next season the crab count dropped by 10% closing many fisheries. As crabbing continued and the crabs landed were low regulators started to step in and take more control over the amount of crabs caught on each boat. Before 2005 there where very few regulations on crabbing, they called the fishing style Derbying. They called it that because the boats would "Derby" out to the fishing grounds and catch as much as possible. After 2005 regulators limited the amount of crabs that were aloud to be caught on the bouts thus establishing a quota. After the quota was put in place the next count came in at 14 million pounds in four days on 250 boats. With the high count Discovery Channel came out with a show called deadliest catch showing the ruff and rigorous job of being a crab fisherman.