There has been a lot of press on the decline of the crab fishery in the Bering Sea. Most of the articles and presentations about this blame human-caused climate change and marine heat waves.
As an engineer, I looked in to these claims to determine how much truth there is to the claims. As an Arctic engineer, I have studied sea ice. As an oceanographic instrument engineer, I have collected and processed data from the waters of Alaska. As a deckhand on a Kachemak Bay crab processing ship in 1957, I have an interest in crab. And as an Alaskan, I have an interest in making sure the news and stories of Alaska are reasonable true.
In an earlier column I stated: “It is not that we have hotter weather; we just have less cold in the winter” in response to the claim that Alaska is warming two to three times faster than the rest of the planet.
A review of air temperature and sea water temperature at St. Paul Island, and of the sea ice extent and area of the Bering Sea supports that statement: For the time during and preceding the lowest sea ice extent and the warmest temperatures in the Bering Sea at St Paul Island, there was a lack of air temperatures much below freezing for each of those years.