Overfishing. Salmon stocks face the same thing.
Example- I moved to AK in 1978 with my family.
Back then, you could go fish off the docks in Seward, Whittier, other seaside towns & catch King Crab right under the pilings with a rod, reel & bacon wrapped in panty hose on a treble hook.
You'd pull them up at night, once they saw the light coming up, they'd try to let go but the claws would stick in the stocking long enough to get a long pole net underneath them.
They'd drop in the net, we'd pull them out & cook them right there.
It's been over 3 decades since that was possible.
Everything is getting overfished.
My buddies that set net for salmon usually struggle to make a profit & that was before the price of fuel skyrocketed.
Even the quota limits don't stop them from reducing the overall numbers either gradually or quickly.
Stop the commercial fisheries for a while & the stocks will come back eventually.
Otherwise, we will harvest them all to practical extinction
