Saving Seafood

California Orders Delay In Start Of Dungeness Crab Season Off Northern California Coast

November 2, 2021 — State fishery officials have delayed the start of Dungeness crab fishing season from Monterey to Point Arena along the Mendocino County coast at least until just days before Thanksgiving, threatening to eliminate the dining favorite from your holiday table.

Last year, the Californian Department of Fish and Wildlife delayed the commercial crab fishing season shortly before Thanksgiving in order to protect whales and sea turtles.

On Monday, they delayed the season again, but this time the State cast an even larger net, including sport fishermen as well.

The delay is based on data from the state’s recently created Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program and has been put into place to protect the migrating pods of humpback whales off the California coast.

State official said aerial surveys on Oct. 18 and 19 counted 48 humpback whales along fishing zones in the area between the Sonoma-Mendocino line and Half Moon Bay.

Aerial surveys undertaken by NOAA researchers throughout October showed at least four distinct individual Pacific leatherback sea turtles also in the fishing grounds.

Read the full story at KPIX

ALASKA: Pandemic economy contributes to record Southeast Dungeness crab prices

September 28, 2021 — Southeast Alaska’s Dungeness crab fetched record breaking prices this summer. The size of the harvest was close to average, but the value of the crab was exceptional.

Southeast’s summer Dungeness crab season ended up being worth $13 million. That’s about double the $7.52 million average over the last decade.

The summer fishery brought in just over 3.09 million pounds of Dungeness crab. That’s slightly above the ten year average but well below last year’s near-record harvest of 5.87 million, which was the second highest harvest ever recorded.

Still, the average price paid for Dungeness crab this summer was a record breaker at $4.21 per pound.

Read the full story at KTOO

 

OREGON: Factors converge to make crab scarce on the North Coast

August 3, 2021 — It’s one of the most popular seafood items on the North Coast and a valuable local fishery, but Dungeness crab has never been harder to find, or more expensive.

At restaurants, portions may be smaller, prices are steep and crab may be off the menu completely this summer.

Seafood distributors, sellers and processors point to a number of factors that converged to create a perfect storm: the coronavirus pandemic, labor shortages, product shortages, supply chain issues and market demands. All have contributed to drive prices up from the usual $25 or so per pound to as much as $52.

“There’s a lot of theories and a lot of possibilities and a lot of reasons for things and it’s kind of, ‘Take your pick,’” said Tim Novotny, a spokesman for the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission.

Read the full story at The Astorian

Dead zones, a ‘horseman’ of climate change, could suffocate crabs in the West, scientists say

July 30, 2021 — As the Pacific Ocean’s cool waters hugged Oregon’s rugged shore, Nick Edwards, a seasoned commercial fisherman, could not believe his eyes. Stretching over at least 100 yards, he said, were the carcasses of hundreds of Dungeness crabs piled in the sands of a beach south of Cape Perpetua.

The remains of what Edwards deemed “the crème de la crème of seafood” — also one of the state’s most prized fisheries — are the most visible byproduct of a process that usually goes unnoticed by most beach-dwellers: hypoxia, or the emergence of swaths of low-oxygen zones in marine waters.

Hypoxic areas in Oregon, researchers found, have surfaced every summer since they were first recorded in 2002 — leading scientists to determine a recurring “hypoxic season,” akin to wildfire and hurricane ones.

However, climate change has exacerbated its effect, said Francis Chan, the director of the Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies at Oregon State University, resulting in increasingly frequent and extensive hypoxic areas that can morph into “dead zones,” where the total lack of oxygen kills off species that cannot swim away, much like the Dungeness crabs.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Alaska’s Dungeness crab prices double, halibut and blackcod also on the rise

July 16, 2021 — Catches for Dungeness crab at Southeast Alaska are going slow so far for 163 boats, but prices of $4.20 a pound are more than double last year’s. The crab fishery will run through mid-August and reopen in October.

Kodiak crabbers were getting $4.25 for their Dungeness, also more than double.

Norton Sound opened for king crab on June 15 with a 290,000-pound catch limit. Concerns over the depleted stock resulted in no buyers and only one participant who is selling crab locally.

Prince William Sound’s pot shrimp fishery remains open until mid-September with a catch limit of 70,000 pounds. A lingcod fishery opened in the sound on July 1 for a catch of nearly 33,000 pounds.

Ling cod also opened at Cook Inlet with a 52,500-pound catch limit. The Inlet also opened July 1 for rockfish with a 150,000-pound harvest.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

CALIFORNIA: Monterey Bay fishermen work to reduce chances of whale entanglements

July 13, 2021 — On a cool Thursday morning this week, Calder Deyerle powered up his Boston Whaler and headed out of Moss Landing Harbor in search of the catch of the day. But this catch had no fins or tails or claws. Deyerle was hunting crab gear.

Five or six years ago, more than 70 whales — mostly fin, blue and humpbacks — became caught in the lines that connect a surface buoy to the crab trap resting on the ocean floor. Because of a crash in the krill population, the whales came in closer to shore to feed on alternative food sources and right into the crab lines.

Lines and traps meant for Dungeness crabs can be deadly to whales that become ensnared in the equipment, often causing dehydration, infected wounds, breathing or reproduction problems and even starvation.

But efforts by Dungeness crab fishermen have dramatically reduced the number of whale entanglements. There have been none this year. The far greater threat to whales today is not from crab gear, rather from ship strikes.

Deyerle is one of nine Monterey Bay commercial fishermen who are contributing to a project called the Lost Gear Recovery Project that is coordinated by the Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust, which in turn is permitted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Read the full story at the Monterey Herald

ALASKA: Dungeness catch down from 2020 but price is up

July 6, 2021 — Commercial Dungeness crabbers will have a full two-month summer and two-month fall season in most of the region, based on the first week’s catch.

The 2021 Southeast season isn’t off to as strong a start as last year. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reports the preliminary catch estimate from the first week is around 711,000 pounds, landed by 163 permit holders. Those numbers are expected to increase as more landings are reported. Nevertheless, that’s under half of the bumper crop harvested in 2020. Last year saw a first-week catch of around 1.5 million pounds and the full season harvest went on to be the second highest on record, 6.7 million pounds.

Based on that first week catch, Fish and Game estimates this year’s total catch will wind up around 3.4 million pounds. That’s well above the threshold to allow a full season. Fishing time’s been shortened only a few times in the past two decades, because of a weak catch or poor quality crab.

Read the full story at KFSK

Crab prices explode along with rising demand

June 24, 2021 — Crab has been one of the hottest commodities since the COVID-19 pandemic forced people in 2020 to buy and cook seafood at home, and demand is even higher this year.

Crab is now perceived as being more affordable when compared to the cost to enjoy it at restaurants, said global seafood supplier Tradex, and prices continue to soar.

That’s how it’s playing out for Dungeness crab at Kodiak and hopefully, at Southeast Alaska where the summer fishery got underway on June 15.

Kodiak’s fishery opened on May 1 and 76,499 pounds have been landed so far by just eight boats, compared to 29 last year. The Kodiak price this season was reported as high as $4.25 per pound for the crab that weigh just more than two pounds on average. That compares to a 2020 price of $1.85 for a catch of nearly 3 million pounds, the highest in 30 years, with a fishery value of nearly $5.3 million.

The pulls are skimpy though, averaging just two crab per pot. Kodiak’s Dungeness stocks are very cyclical and the fishery could be tapping out the tail end of a peak. Managers say this summer should tell the tale.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

CALIFORNIA: Will offshore wind hurt the Morro Bay fishing industry? ‘We’re basically screwed’

June 22, 2021 — Bill Blue has been commercially fishing Dungeness crab and black cod near the shores of Morro Bay for 47 years.

It’s a business that he got into when he was 19 years old.

“That’s all I know. That’s what I do,” he said.

Blue’s business has survived in an industry that has faced growing regulations and shrinking territory during the nearly five decades he’s operated off the Central Coast.

Now, proposals to develop a massive floating offshore wind farm in the Pacific Ocean near Cambria may diminish Blue’s fishing grounds by 399 square miles — an area more than twice the size of Lake Tahoe.

The proposed offshore wind farm got a green light from Biden administration officials with support from California Gov. Gavin Newsom on May 25, after years of negotiations between federal, state and local governments.

Along with Newsom, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Dr. Colin Kahl announced the advancement of the proposed offshore wind farm in a call with reporters, touting the economic benefits of the project and clean energy it will generate.

The wind farm would be located northwest of Morro Bay, about 17 to 40 miles offshore.

Read the full story at The Tribune

Alaska crab is in high demand, but some fishermen are worried about stocks

June 21, 2021 — Crab has been one of the hottest commodities since the COVID pandemic forced people in 2020 to buy and cook seafood at home, and demand is even higher this year.

Crab is now perceived as being more affordable when compared to the cost to enjoy it at restaurants, said global seafood supplier Tradex, and prices continue to soar.

That’s how it’s playing out for Dungeness crab at Kodiak and, hopefully, in Southeast Alaska, where the summer fishery got underway June 15.

Kodiak’s fishery opened on May 1 and 76,499 pounds have been landed so far by just eight boats, compared to 29 last year. The Kodiak price this season was reported as high as $4.25 a pound for the crab that weigh just over 2 pounds on average. That compares to a 2020 price of $1.85 for a catch of nearly 3 million pounds, the highest in 30 years, with a fishery value of nearly $5.3 million.

The pulls are skimpy though, averaging just two crab per pot. Kodiak’s Dungeness stocks are very cyclical and the fishery could be tapping out the tail end of a peak. Managers say this summer should tell the tale.

Southeast’s summer Dungeness could see 190 or more permit holders on the grounds. Crabbers won’t know until June 29 how much they can pull up for the two-month fishery after managers assess catch and effort information. The fishery, which occurs primarily around Petersburg and Wrangell, will reopen again in October.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News