July 27, 2023 — Clackamas, Oregon, U.S.A.-based Pacific Seafood is fighting back against a lawsuit alleging it has engaged in anti-competitive behavior in the U.S. West Coast Dungeness crab market.
Auburn, California, U.S.A.-based Dungeness fisherman Brand Little filed a class-action lawsuit in March 2023 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Pacific, which is one of the largest players in the fishery, accusing it of price-fixing.
March 30, 2023 — Clackamas, Oregon, U.S.A.-based Pacific Seafood has stressed the bona fides of its domestic labor force in its latest social responsibility report.
Pacific’s sixth annual Corporate Social Responsibility Report, released 28 March, said the company increased its sustainability efforts, supported groundbreaking research, forged new partnerships, and added more team-member benefits in 2022.
July 23, 2021 — Pacific Seafood has donated more than $240,000 to assist the city of Newport in its efforts to maintain, upgrade and address its aging water infrastructure. The donation will help the city to safely address the water needs of local residents and businesses.
“As a result of a corrected billing error, Pacific Seafood has agreed to forgive over $240,000 in overcharges,” said Newport City Manager Spencer Nebel. “Pacific Seafood’s generous action comes at a critical time for the city’s water fund. The city of Newport has several major projects that are in need of immediate attention in order to ensure that city residents continue to have uninterrupted access to water service.” Nebel added, “Pacific Seafood’s donation to the water fund is greatly appreciated, and we thank them for their continued partnership with the city.”
May 11, 2021 — Now that COVID-19 outbreaks are under control at Pacific Seafood, the supplier is turning its attention to launching unique value-added seafood items with partners such as Amazon and Pac-12 university football and basketball.
In March, the Clackamas, Oregon-based company’s processing plant in Warrenton, Oregon, U.S.A had its third outbreak of COVID-19 in the past year. Last September, nearly 100 of Pacific’s employees at its Warrenton facility tested positive for COVID-19, four months after more than 130 employees tested positive for the coronavirus among its five plants in the area.
March 11, 2021 — In spring 2020, the fishing community of Newport, Oregon, shuttered along with the rest of the country. A coronavirus outbreak at a local Pacific Seafood processing plant left fishermen sitting on docks with no buyers for their Dungeness crabs, while restaurants closed and families found themselves housebound.
That’s when Taunette Dixon and her organization, the Newport Fishermen’s Wives, stepped in. This group quickly mobilized to provide food, supplies, infant formula, pet food, fuel cards, masks, gloves and money for past-due utility payments to fishing families who had been hit by the pandemic.
For 50 years, groups like Dixon’s have formed the behind-the-scenes backbone of their communities, often lobbying on behalf of their husbands, who leave for months at a time to fish.
In fishing towns where fishermen’s spouses stay onshore, fishermen’s wives associations have served as mutual aid groups, social support networks and political agitators. Dixon and her colleagues mend nets, keep books, care for families, fight for or against environmental regulations, navigate byzantine quota systems and act as onshore brokers communicating information to husbands out at sea.
Data about these women is scarce, and there’s not much research quantifying exactly how much work they perform for the industry, but social scientists call their labor an “informal subsidy”. And yet, when policymakers talk about supporting fishermen, women like Dixon are often left out of the conversation. And at a local level, members of these groups say their individual efforts can go unnoticed or taken for granted.
January 4, 2021 — Two weeks after the season was set to open on Dec. 16, Oregon crabbers are still sitting at the dock waiting for a price before heading out to sea.
The California season is likewise delayed by price negotiations, while the Washington season has been delayed until at least Jan. 15 due to high domoic acid levels.
With no price agreement in sight, many would pin the price hang-up on the largest processor in the area, Pacific Seafood, but after a period of silence, the company has asserted it’s only one of many processors that contribute to determining the price, which is especially difficult this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While not directly involved, Lori Steel, executive director of the West Coast Seafood Processors Association, said that as of Wednesday, negotiations were still ongoing behind closed doors, and a price could be decided at any time. Pacific Seafood is one of the companies that falls under the association’s umbrella.
“The companies I represent are working hard to get this going and find an agreement among the fishermen they buy from,” Steel said. “We’re all hopeful to see fishermen on the water as soon as possible.”
Steel said the pandemic has been a huge source of uncertainty this year and has disrupted every part of the supply chain for the crab industry. She estimates that the government closures have caused restaurant and food service demand for crab to fall 70 percent, and other restrictions on employment have led to a labor shortage.
“People who don’t work in the industry need to understand that we’re a struggling industry right now, and the pandemic is putting unprecedented pressure on us from the harvesters all the way up the supply chain,” Steel said. “We’re doing the best we can, and it’s just been a tough year. We want to see this resolved and have our guys packing crab in the plants as soon as possible.”
December 23, 2020 — Eggnog? Check. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire? Sure, if you’re into that. But don’t bet on landing any Dungeness crab this holiday season.
“Unless a miracle happens, which is highly unlikely, we won’t see crab for Christmas,” said Tony Anello, a veteran fisher who runs his boat, the Annabelle, out of Bodega Bay and offers up his tender product at Spud Point Crab Co.
After several years of varied setbacks and more than a month of delays to the 2020 Dungeness season, local crabbers now face a new hurdle as they haggle over price with large wholesalers. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife had reset the season’s start date to Wednesday, offering a glimmer of hope to those who have made fresh crab part of their annual holiday ritual. But few boats were heading out to set traps on Tuesday.
“We should be traveling right now,” Dick Ogg, another icon of the local Dungeness harvest, said Monday from behind a shopping cart at Costco. “I’m here grabbing stuff in case something happens this afternoon. We would normally anchor up, set up all the bait cups and be ready. Then (Tuesday), right at 6:01 (a.m.), we’d start setting gear.”
But Monday did not bring resolution. At 3 p.m. that day, representatives of the major fishing ports in Northern California spoke by phone with executives of Pacific Seafood, one of the West’s largest seafood wholesalers. A couple hours later, the company engaged in a separate call with a wider range of fishers stretching up the Oregon coast.
October 28, 2020 — Pacific Seafood has won a multi-year partnership with the Pac-12 Conference, and it will now serve as the official meat and seafood provider of the conference.
Pac-12 is comprised of 12 leading United States universities on the West Coast.
October 1, 2020 — Pacific Seafood confirmed over the weekend that their Warrenton plant has a total of 94 positive COVID-19 cases. Of those cases, 86 of them were from last week, while eight were from the week prior.
Clatsop County’s Public Health Department released a notice last week reporting a “major outbreak” at Pacific’s Warrenton plant. According to the report, 77 out of the plant’s 159-member night shift tested positive for the virus. As a result, Pacific temporarily suspended operations as they tested their day shift workers.
September 28, 2020 — The results of testing completed at the end of last week show the current coronavirus outbreak among workers at processing plant in Warrenton, Oregon, U.S.A. have bumped the count of affected employees to 94, up from the 77 announced last week.
However, the company’s most recent round of testing, conducted on Thursday and Friday, 24 and 25 September, revealed only five positive COVID-19 tests out of 106 workers, with one test result still pending.