Saving Seafood

US scallop prices only expected to rise with no supply relief in sight

October 27, 2015 — As landings continue to come in a little shorter than had been predicted for 2015, US sources see no easing in prices for domestic scallops, which are back up near the all-time high levels seen before this fishing season began.

The agreed outlook is for prices to remain where they are now, with limited landings expected between now and Christmas, when demand traditionally picks up from October.

One executive with a scallop catching firm told Undercurrent News that boats landing in Newport News, Virginia, last week, saw U12s earn $15.75 per pound to the boat, and as much as $16 a few days later.

10/20s sold for $12.03 – $12.05. A second source, also operating out of Newport News, confirmed the largest sizes were going in the $16 range. He put 10/20s in the high $11 area, and in the low to mid $12 too. Both sources added these were typical of recent developments, and that they expected prices to remain similar for the rest of 2015.

Meanwhile David Cournoyer, general manager of Marder Trading in New Bedford, Massachusetts, put prices for fresh, dry U10s at $17.50 to the boat, $18- 18.50 sold on the street.

10/20s were $14 sold on the street, give or take 40 cents, he told Undercurrent.

“October demand was down, as it generally is this time of year. Demand tends to increase in November, December, and early January usually.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

El Niño is Going to Starve a Lot of Fish

October 14, 2015 — When Joe Orsi goes trawling, he doesn’t go trawling for 900-pound ocean sunfish. Orsi’s title is biologist, his employer the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Research Center, his cause researching said state’s fisheries. His typical prey, therefore, are juvenile Alaskan salmon. Sunfish are tropical—occasionally temperate—creatures, and do not belong about 40 miles offshore of a place called Icy Point. But that’s what Orsi’s nets brought up in June.

“What’s crazy is, like a day before, a guy asked me what was the strangest thing I’d brought up in a trawl,” says Orsi. Whatever he answered then—sea otter, Dall’s porpoise, maybe a blue shark—is certainly obsolete now.

Strange things are aswim along the Pacific coast. Starving sea lion pups, jellyfish swarms, toxic algae blooms. All because of an enormous mass of warm water stretching from California to Alaska that scientists have dubbed “the Blob.” And the Blob is about to get joined by more warm water from the gargantuan El Niño—with its own scientific nickname, “Godzilla“—forming in the equatorial east Pacific. When these monster warm water systems eventually meet, they aren’t just going to bring charming equatorial fish on subarctic vacations. They’re probably going to deliver a generation (or several generations) of scrawny fish to the oceans.

Read the full story from Wired

EL NINO AND ‘BLOB’ CREATE MASSIVE WARM POOL OFF OREGON, POSING CHALLENGE TO FUTURE FISHERIES

August 4, 2015 — The massive pool of warm water stretching from the Pacific Coast of the US to Alaska is currently affecting only a few fisheries, but has the potential to impact more next year.

For the last month, in the area stretching from Southern California to Alaska, sea surface temperatures have been 1 to 3 degrees Celsius above normal (1.8 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit).

This has resulted in changes in plankton blooms, and a change in species. Scientists with Oregon State University say that tropical copepods have now been found in the Northwest, and native plankton are fewer in number. Fish and birds that would normally eat native plankton are shying away from the newcomers, as they are less nutritious.

Sardines which are known to have large cyclical changes in population have been among the most vulnerable to this change, and the sardine fishery on the West Coast has been closed this year after numbers declined below the management’s precautionary threshold.

But other fisheries are doing fine. Brad Pettinger, director of the Oregon Trawl Commission, says that through June, shrimp catches were running 50% higher than last year. However, “Ordinarily, when a el nino hits this coast, the following year’s shrimp production isn’t effected to the extent the next year’s production is. Basically, the el nino puts the hurt on the spawn and that isn’t seen until a year and a half later.”

The whiting fishery is also proceeding well. With a total quota of around 267,000 tons, about 94,000 tons has been landed in all three sectors: mother ship, catcher processor, and shore side.

Read the full story at SeafoodNews.com