Saving Seafood

California Dungeness crabbers protest early shutdown

April 29, 2020 — California state officials are ordering an early end to the southern Dungeness crab season May 15 to protect migrating whales, a move fishing advocates say is out of proportion to the actual risk.

In an April 15 notice Charlton Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, announced the Dungeness season would close and all gear pulled by mid-May, two months early, south of the Mendocino-Sonoma County line.

The decision comes as the fishery is winding down, with the California fleet gearing up for a promising salmon season that opens May 1. But it cuts off a sector that is providing jobs and seafood in coastal communities hit hard by coronavirus restrictions and their economic impact, said Ben Platt, president of the California Coast Crab Association.

“They say that there’s ‘significant risk.’ But the whale working group determined there was low risk, as they have in all of the recommendations this season,” said Platt, referring to a stakeholder advisory group established in 2015 to assess seasonal risks of gear entanglement.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

California crab fishery to close in May to protect whales

April 27, 2020 — Commercial fishermen are protesting an order by California wildlife authorities to close the Dungeness crab fishery in mid-May to protect whales and sea turtles from becoming entangled in fishing gear.

There have been no confirmed interactions between commercial Dungeness crab gear and any whales during the current crab season, which began in December, Ben Platt, president of the Crescent City-based California Coast Crab Association, said in a statement.

California Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Charlton H. Bonham on Wednesday ordered the fishery to close on May 15 for the remainder of the season south of the Sonoma-Mendocino county line, which is about 90 miles (145 kilometers) north of San Francisco.

Acknowledging challenges facing the commercial fishing industry during the coronavirus pandemic, the department said the decision “provides additional time on the water while balancing the need to protect whales and turtles.”

Read the full story at The North Bay Business Journal

FLORIDA: First, a hurricane, Then, an algae bloom. Now, Keys fishermen try to weather a pandemic

April 20, 2020 — Ernie Piton and his crew unloaded traps filled with stone crab claws at a Key Largo dock Wednesday afternoon.

The claws were placed in two large steel vats and steamed by propane heat before Piton’s sons, Travis and Ernie III, iced them down and spread them on a white cleaning table to be sorted.

This day’s haul was a good catch — hundreds of claws ranging in size from large to “colossal.”

But this was among the last trips the crew of the Risky Business II will make this season to harvest the Florida delicacy. With restaurants mostly closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Piton and most other Keys commercial anglers are calling it an early season, which is scheduled to end May 10.

Piton, 54, has been in the lobster and crab business for nearly 40 years and is among the most successful operators in the Keys. He said he’ll be able to weather the pandemic, but he feels for the many other commercial anglers who won’t.

“Fishing is like farming,” he said. “You have to plan ahead.”

Read the full story at the Miami Herald

Restaurant Closures Put Oregon Seafood Industry In Limbo

April 15, 2020 — Commercial fisherman Clint Funderburg should be on the ocean right now, catching Dungeness crab on his fishing boat, the Widgeon. Instead, he’s in his shop in Newport, and his boat is parked at the dock — likely until June.

When crab prices tanked a few weeks ago, he shifted gears to his off-season side gig. So, he’s building a refrigeration system for one of the many fishing boats that are stuck at the dock right now.

The coronavirus pandemic dealt its first blow to the West Coast fishing fleet back in January, cutting off lucrative live crab sales to China for the Chinese New Year.

From there, things only got worse as the virus spread across the globe and restaurants everywhere closed their dining rooms. This time of year, Funderburg would normally be getting $7 or $8 a pound for Dungeness crab. When it got down to just $2 a pound last month, he gave up.

“The company was starting to lose money,” he said. “We just quit fishing, called it a season. There are very few people left fishing. You know, you basically can’t hardly get rid of the crab. Normally, we would crab through May, and a lot of the guys do. Especially the smaller boats count on March, April, May to really make their seasons.”

Read the full story at OPB

ALASKA: Bering Sea commercial fleets taking extra precautions during pandemic

April 15, 2020 — Commercial fishermen who have embarked on the Bering Sea for the 2020 season are taking extra precautions in light of the COVID-19 pandemic that has moved much of the world into isolation.

According to a report from The Bristol Bay Times, Bering Sea snow crabbers who are still out working the waters have been confined to their boats while making deliveries to processing plants. They’ve also been urged to avoid contact with plant workers to help prevent any potential spread of the deadly virus, the Intercooperative Exchange’s Jake Jacobson told The Times.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

CALIFORNIA: Humboldt Bay crab fishing season ‘devastated’ by COVID-19

March 26, 2020 — Crab fishing in Humboldt County has seen better days, but it’s never been as bad as this, several fishermen said Tuesday.

“We could use one word: it’s devastating,” said Harrison Ibach, president of the Humboldt Fishermen’s Marketing Association. “Everything has come to a screaming halt. And it’s not just the crab industry, it’s the entire seafood industry.”

Ibach and others estimated that the best market price for a pound of crab in Humboldt County — from the few buyers left — stands around $2 per pound, down from $3 at the start of this year’s season. For Ibach, “that’s the lowest I’ve seen in many, many years.”

The crabbing season naturally slows down in March, but the global coronavirus pandemic has brought unprecedented new levels of decline to the industry, fishermen said. It started when China — a top shipping location for live crabs — stopped taking in product from Humboldt Bay fishermen after the virus began wreaking havoc in the country.

In the couple of months that followed, the domestic market has similarly plummeted. Now that the ongoing statewide shelter-in-place order has closed most restaurants, almost no one in Humboldt County is buying crab.

Read the full story at The Times-Standard

The best places to buy fresh seafood online in 2020

March 25, 2020 — With much of the country practicing some form of social distancing and attempting to keeping indoors whenever possible, delivery services have become all that more useful. From booze to groceries, butcher meats and even fully-prepared meals , these services are providing a level of safety the public, especially for those at high risk of becoming sick. The following is our pre-COVID-19 list of the best seafood delivery services in 2020 to keep a steady flow of healthy fish coming, even in these unnerving times. Be sure to check that the services listed are accepting new customers and deliver to your area.

There are lots of reasons to buy more seafood. Generally speaking, fish and seafood (wild caught in particular) are healthier both for our bodies and the planet than beef, chicken, pork and other meats (all now largely factory-farmed, often using growth hormones and other dubious practices). But for every reason to eat more fish and seafood, there seems to be an obstacle in the way — cost and access to name a few.

It might sound counterintuitive to order seafood online but a bevy of new members of the online seafood industry are proving that fish and seafood delivery might just be the best way to get fresh and affordable seafood into your home, especially when living far from fished waters. “Fresh seafood delivery” is not an oxymoron. A reliable seafood market (or seafood restaurant) with a consistently fresh bounty of salmon, halibut, crab and other shellfish is a treasure, to be certain, but not every town or neighborhood has one, and if you live far from the ocean things get even dicier.

This score of online ordering seafood delivery companies offer everything from high-quality salmon, jumbo shrimp, gulf shrimp, clams (and clam chowder), oysters, cape porpoise lobster and crab legs to harder-to-find fish species like monkfish and grouper, all flash-frozen, expertly packaged and delivered right to your door as a one-time order or recurring subscription. The new players are finding innovative ways to ensure maximum freshness and accountability and supporting sustainable seafood, with many now providing detailed records about exactly where the fish and seafood came from, when it was caught, how far it traveled and what sorts of fishing practices have been employed.

Read the full story at CNET

NFI Red Crab Council Remains Committed to Improving Chinese Crab Fishery

March 17, 2020 — The following was released by the National Fisheries Institute:

The National Fisheries Institute’s Red Crab Council will continue to fund and support its Fisheries Improvement Project (FIP) in China. The comprehensive FIP is focused on improving crab production in Fujian Province, the leading harvesting region in China for red crab.

“For so many reasons the operating climate around red crab, from a trade perspective, is challenging these days,” said Newport International President Anjan Tharakan, the NFI Red Crab Council Chair. “It would be easy to see why companies might say they don’t want to participate in this work right now. But not one company did. This is a committed group.”

The Council’s project partner on the ground in China is Ocean Outcomes (O2), who coordinates with fishery stakeholders, government interests and the China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Alliance to keep the FIP moving in the right direction.

The NFI Red Crab Council funds the work by assessing a fee on each of its members based on the number of pounds they import each quarter.

“Like most FIPs, this project has its challenges on the water, but when your primary source of funding off the water is directly dependent on trade volume, and tariffs enter the picture, that makes things even more challenging,” said O2 Founder and Senior Advisor Rich Lincoln. “To be able to continue the work in China with local fishery stakeholders will allow us to build on the momentum we’ve generated and ensure this important FIP remains on track.”

The status of the Fujian Red Crab FIP is updated biannually on fisheryprogress.org. Its 2019 work focused on implementation of catch, biological and effort data collection, harvest strategy evaluation, and lost fishing gear assessment.

The NFI Red Crab Council is the leading precompetitive collaboration effort focused solely on the sustainability of Red Swimming Crab. The Council is committed to collaborating on Red Crab Fisheries Improvement Projects globally.

West Coast Dungeness Crab Stable or Increasing Even With Intensive Harvest, Research Shows

March 5, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The West Coast Dungeness crab fishery doesn’t just support the most valuable annual harvest of seafood on the West Coast. It’s a fishery that just keeps on giving.

Fishermen from California to Washington caught almost all the available legal-size male Dungeness crab each year in the last few decades. However, the crab population has either remained stable or continued to increase, according to the first thorough population estimate of the West Coast Dungeness stocks.

“The catches and abundance in Central California especially are increasing, which is pretty remarkable to see year after year,” said Kate Richerson, a research scientist at NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle. Richerson is the lead author of the new study published in the journal Fisheries Research. “There’s reason to be optimistic that this fishery will continue to be one of the most productive and on the West Coast.”

Other recent research has suggested that the West Coast’s signature shellfish could suffer in the future from ocean acidification and other effects related to climate change. That remains a concern, Richerson said, but the study did not detect obvious signs of population-level impacts yet.

Read the full release here

Northern Wind launching new value-added seafood line featuring 16 products

March 5, 2020 — New Bedford, Massachusetts-based seafood supplier Northern Wind is launching a new line of culinary-inspired seafood products under its Bon Cuisine brand this month.

Sixteen offerings comprise the latest Bon Cuisine line, including Zucchini & Smoked Salmon Fritters, Spinach & Cheese Salmon Kiev, Salmon En Croute, Pre-fried Crab Bites, Raw Garlic Butter Shrimp Skewers, Pre-Fried Shrimp Zucchini Fritters, and a Hoki Fish Taco Kit. Catering to consumer demand for adventurous flavors and ready-to-cook convenience, the new range “offers customers a trendy restaurant quality seafood option,” Northern Wind explained in a 2 March press release.

Read the full story at Seafood Source