Fishermen fear going out of business after Alaska cancels snow and king crab harvest Transcript

Speaker 1: (00:03) In a major blow to America's seafood industry, Alaska's department of fish and game has canceled the winter snow crab season in the Bering sea. This after a dramatic decrease in the number of snow crabs, while restaurant menus will suffer, the greatest impact will be to the economy to the tune of 200 million. CBS's Jonathan Vigliotti traveled to Alaska to investigate. Jonathan Vigliotti: (00:25) Autumn is a time for stocking up on Alaska's Kodiak Archipelago. It's famous namesake bears feast on a buffet of salmon ahead of winter, and in the nearby fishing port, one of the largest in the country, Gabriel Prout and his family had mapped out crab season. Gabriel Prout: (00:44) We'll leave our slip here in Dog Bay, Kodiak, Alaska head out around Spruce Island. Jonathan Vigliotti: (00:50) But the odds of Prout's ship ever leaving his slip are now slim to none, which could also be said about the snow crab population that makes up most of his business. And an estimated 1 billion crabs mysteriously disappeared in just two years. That's a 90%. Gabriel Prout: (01:09) Where have the snow crab gone? Did they run up north to get to that colder water? Did they completely cross across the border? Did they walk off the continental shelf on the edge there of the Bering sea? We don't know. Ben Daley: (01:19) The first reaction was this, is this real? We looked at, it was almost a flat line. Jonathan Vigliotti: (01:24) As a researcher with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game... Ben Daley: (01:27) Let's see what we've got for crab. Jonathan Vigliotti: (01:30) ... it's Ben Daley's job to monitor the health of the state's fisheries, which produce 60% of the nation's seafood. His team is now investigating where the crabs have gone. Ben Daley: (01:40) We're trying to look for causes. Disease is one possibility. Jonathan Vigliotti: (01:45) Daley also points to climate change. Alaska is the fastest warming state in the country and is losing billions of tons of ice each year. Critical for crabs who need cold water to survive. Ben Daley: (01:56) Environmental conditions are changing rapidly. We've seen some warm conditions in the Bering sea the last handful of years, and we're seeing a response in a cold adapted species. So it's pretty obvious that this is connected. Gabriel Prout: (02:08) We need a rapid relief financial program to get us through disasters like this. Much like farmers get during crop failures or communities get soon after a hurricane or flood. Jonathan Vigliotti: (02:19) What does a person do whose life is dependent on the ocean when the ocean stops giving? Gabriel Prout: (02:24) Hope and pray. Jonathan Vigliotti: (02:26) Hope and pray the snow crabs return and his way of life continues. For Eye on America. I'm Jonathan Bigley on Kodiak Island.