It has been my experience that Indian and non-Indian commercial crab catches are pretty well documented when they are sold to a seafood dealer/wholesaler. These fishers use the same buyers. The "fish receiving ticket," requiring I.D. and signature of the fisherman, is common throughout. This is how the vast majority of the Indian and non-Indian commercial catch gets recorded. Commercial crab fishermen recording their catch on a ticket can take home crab for whatever reason.... personal use, subsistence, ceremonial... but these must show up on the fish receiving ticket.

Now, do all commercial crab get recorded on tickets? They are required to... tribal and non-tribal alike. But there is a relatively small portion that does not. That is where each individual fishery management agency comes in. Each has its own system for accounting for unrecorded catch. As with other management functions, this catch recording success varies from agency to agency. For instance, I know of some Tribes that do an excellent job of recording catch that is not on tickets and some who's system leaves something to be desired.

All in all, the commercial catch (tribal and non-tribal) is well documented.