NSEDC will harvest allocations of crab CDQ in the Bering Sea opilio crab fishery (about 380,000 pounds in 2003), Bering Sea bairdi fishery (closed for the last several years), Aleutian Island golden king crab fishery (not yet a CDQ fishery), Bristol Bay red king crab fishery (roughly 120,000 pounds in 2002) and the St. Matthew blue king crab fishery (closed for the past several years) using three crab vessels: the F/V Alaskan Beauty, Ocean Olympic and the F/V North Pacific, all of which are partially owned by NSEDC. NSEDC may contract with additional vessels to harvest CDQ crab as needed. These vessels are owned and operated by Norton Sound Ventures LLC of Seattle, Washington.

We anticipate fishing for CDQ crab in each of these fisheries within the biologically acceptable season and outside of the open access fisheries. Crab fisheries, however, for bairdi tanner crab and blue king crab at St. Matthew regulatory areas have been closed for several years due to concerns of stock size and biology of the fisheries.

The CDQ crab will be delivered to a shoreside processing facility in Dutch Harbor, owned and operated by Royal Aleutian Seafoods, Inc. of Seattle, Washington. Royal Aleutian is a new processing company for NSEDC starting in 2003. Royal Aleutian will provide flexibility for custom processing as well joint venture opportunities, and possibly support and integrate with crab processing operations and sales in the region.