Saving Seafood

Commercial season opening, China tariffs could bring price relief for Washington delicacy

January 4, 2019 — The commercial crab season opened off the Washington and Oregon coasts this week, with fishers allowed to pull their pots beginning Friday.

The start of the Dungeness season — combined with a possible dip in demand from China — will likely mean prices will come down locally.

That’s welcomed news for customers who saw near record-high prices over the holidays, said Jon Speltz, owner of Wild Salmon Seafood Market in Seattle.

“It might have been at a historic high,” Speltz said of the prices, which sit at about $14.99-per-pound right now.

Fresh Dungeness crab over the holidays was in such high demand, Speltz said they “were just happy to get live crab.”

The fishery off the coast was delayed this year after tests showed crab had not filled out enough. It can start as early as Dec. 1, but has been pushed back to January over the past few seasons to allow crabs to become meatier, a spokesperson with the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife said.

Despite a late start, the season has remained strong over the last few years. More than 23 million pounds (10 million kilograms) of crab were landed in the 2017-18 season. That brought in a record $74.2 million in ex-vessel value.

Read the full story at KCPQ

New England Deep Sea Red Crab Quota Continues at 3.9 Million Pounds on 3 Year Management Cycle

January 3, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The New England deep sea red crab fishery will continue unchanged in 2019 as the quota remains at 3.9 million pounds. The quota has been unchanged since 2011. Catches over the latest five years as reported by NOAA averaged around 2.87 million pounds.

The New England deep sea red crab is fished by a specialty operation that uses a large vessel to set and retrieve pots. This fishery was one of the ones most affected with the designation of the Northeast Canyons National monument. Catches do fluctuate, although they have been well below the quota, which is also the Allowable Biological Catch, since 2011.

This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

US government shutdown threatens Alaska cod, pollock, crab harvests

January 2, 2019 — Should the US federal government shutdown continue, it could put a serious clamp on commercial fishing off the coast of Alaska, KTOO reports.

The government will allow fisheries in the Bering Sea to start as scheduled with an initial opening for Pacific cod on Jan. 1 and a second opening for pollock and other species on Jan. 20, the Alaska public radio station explains. However, due to the shutdown, the National Marine Fisheries Service isn’t doing the required inspections of scales for weighing fish on boats or monitoring equipment. And special permits that some boats need are not being issued.

Nearly all of the large boats that fish for cod starting Jan. 1 have already had their required inspections, said Chad See, executive director of the Freezer Longline Coalition. And the more lucrative pollock season is several weeks from restarting.  But blocking only a single fishing trip by a large factory trawler could cost the industry millions of dollars, the article warned.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Deep-sea crab fishing quota to stay same in 2019

January 2, 2019 — Federal fishing managers are holding the line on the quota for a commercial important species of crab that is fished off of the East Coast.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the quota for Atlantic deep-sea red crab will be about 3.9 million pounds, which is the same it has been since 2011.

The crabs are fished using traps, and the fishery mostly takes place off southern New England and the Mid-Atlantic Bight, which stretches to North Carolina. The crabs are used for fresh picked meat and frozen legs.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WBNG

Dungeness crab season delayed until year-end

December 12, 2018 — The commercial Dungeness crab fishery along the US West Coast has been delayed until at least Dec. 30 due to low meat yields, Washington state officials said in a press release.

According to the rules of a tri-state process that governs commercial Dungeness fishing in Washington, Oregon and northern California, harvesting for the species will be delayed as portions of the fishery in each state do not meet the minimum meat yield requirements to make harvesting commercially viable.

According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the tri-state rules require that a delay is required if, after two rounds of testing, crabs don’t yield enough meat — the standard is 23% yields for crabs caught north of Cascade Head, Oregon, and 25% for crabs caught south of it — then a delay is required.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Commercial crab season likely delayed until January

December 7, 2018 — The opening of commercial Dungeness crab season will likely be delayed until Jan. 1, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

A decision won’t be official until after a conference call Friday at noon by tri-state managers. The mainland West Coast crab fishery is managed by a consortium of Washington state, Oregon and California officials.

The most recent round of testing found crab in Pacific and Clatsop counties either at or very near the minimum 23 percent meat requirement. However, crab in southern Oregon were still significantly under weight.

Read the full story at The Daily Astorian

Trade group takes fuel companies to court over Dungeness crab closures

November 27, 2018 — A trade group representing commercial fishermen on the West Coast of the United States has filed a lawsuit in a California court claiming petroleum companies have significantly harmed the Dungeness crab fishery in that state and neighboring Oregon.

The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Association filed the suit in a San Francisco, California court last week against 30 fossil fuel makers. They claim actions by the defendants – which include Chevron, ExxonMobil, Dutch Shell, Citgo, ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil – have led to algae blooms in the Pacific Ocean. Those blooms lead to a buildup of domoic acid, a harmful neurotoxin, in the crabs.

The lawsuit states fuel companies have known for a half-century that their products have led to climate change, with the waters for the crab fishery growing warmer. As a result, the Dungeness crab fishery has suffered through repeated closures since 2015.

“We are seeking to implement measures, at the fossil fuel industry’s expense, that will help crabbers adapt to a world in which domoic acid flare-ups will be increasingly common, and also help those crabbers who suffer financial losses as a result,” said Noah Oppenheim, the association’s executive director, in a news release.

Just days before the lawsuit, California Department of Fish and Wildlife officials announced that the Dungeness crab fishery, originally scheduled to open on 15 November, would be suspended indefinitely along the Sonoma County coast, located roughly 70 miles north of San Francisco.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Trade group takes fuel companies to court over Dungeness crab closures

November 27, 2018 — A trade group representing commercial fishermen on the West Coast of the United States has filed a lawsuit in a California court claiming petroleum companies have significantly harmed the Dungeness crab fishery in that state and neighboring Oregon.

The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Association filed the suit in a San Francisco, California court last week against 30 fossil fuel makers. They claim actions by the defendants – which include Chevron, ExxonMobil, Dutch Shell, Citgo, ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil – have led to algae blooms in the Pacific Ocean. Those blooms lead to a buildup of domoic acid, a harmful neurotoxin, in the crabs.

The lawsuit states fuel companies have known for a half-century that their products have led to climate change, with the waters for the crab fishery growing warmer. As a result, the Dungeness crab fishery has suffered through repeated closures since 2015.

“We are seeking to implement measures, at the fossil fuel industry’s expense, that will help crabbers adapt to a world in which domoic acid flare-ups will be increasingly common, and also help those crabbers who suffer financial losses as a result,” said Noah Oppenheim, the association’s executive director, in a news release.

Just days before the lawsuit, California Department of Fish and Wildlife officials announced that the Dungeness crab fishery, originally scheduled to open on 15 November, would be suspended indefinitely along the Sonoma County coast, located roughly 70 miles north of San Francisco.

Crab fishing south of the county began on schedule. Crab fishing north of Sonoma County is not scheduled to start until next month. However, in the same statement, state officials did not rule out a delay for that portion of the fishery.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Only way is up for pollock prices in 2019

November 20, 2018 — The prices for all forms of pollock look set to continue to increase next year, sources in the US, Russia, China and Europe told Undercurrent News.

Prices for pin-bone out (PBO) blocks, double-frozen fillet blocks, and the headed and gutted (H&G) raw material the latter is based on, all look set for higher levels in 2019, having already firmed in 2018, the sources said.

During the China Fisheries & Seafood Expo, held Nov. 7-9 in a venue close to Qingdao, ex-warehouse prices of around $3,500 per-metric-ton were being discussed for PBO blocks for A season. Prices for B season of 2018 were done around $3,350/t. Also, double frozen fillet block prices of around $3,200/t are also being discussed for next year.

“We see the price of $3,500/t reached and confirmed and we will take it up from there,” Fedor Kirsanov, CEO of Russian Fishery Company (RFC), told Undercurrent at the show, of the situation with PBO. US suppliers and also a large European buyer confirmed this level.

The level in the A season of 2018 was around $3,000/t (see image below and use the Undercurrent prices portal for interactive data), a leap from the very low level of around $2,350/t hit in the B season of 2017, as the price bottomed out. The pace of the increase has shocked buyers, but producers have been quick to point out this is only a return to a historical norm.

“We felt the fall was pretty quick. Now, it’s going more back to normal. It’s also not like pollock has gone off the charts. It’s back to a level where everyone can make money. It’s going back to a level where producers can make investments,” Tom Enlow, CEO of UniSea — a pollock, cod and crab processing plant in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, which is owned by Japan’s Nippon Suisan Kaisha (Nissui) — told Undercurrent.

The speed of the price increase has been driven by new markets taking the fish, he said.

“When the prices were very low, the producers looked at new markets. There has been more focus on deepskin for Asia and also surimi. Demand for surimi has been very strong, due to the shortfall in warmwater surimi,” the Nissui executive said. “The shortage in warmwater is the reason Thailand is so hot at the moment for surimi. Also, Japan is stable, but they take almost half of the surimi the US produces.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

October/November 2018 issue of Fisheries Focus Now Available

November 19, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The October/November 2018  issue of Fisheries Focus is now available at http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/5bef3628FishFocusOctNov2018.pdf.  Wishing you all a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Upcoming Meetings

page 2

Report from the Chair
Reflections on Our Past and Future

page 3

Species Profile

Atlantic Herring

page 4

Fishery Management Actions

Coastal Sharks

Horseshoe Crab

Northern Shrimp

Spiny Dogfish

page 6

Proposed Management Actions

Summer Flounder

Scup

Black Sea Bass

page 8 

Science Highlight

Living Shorelines

page 9 

ACCSP

What Do You Do?

page 10

On the Legislative Front

page 11

Past issues of Fisheries Focus can be found at http://www.asmfc.org/search/%20/%20/Fishery-Focus