Tag Archives: Low prices
Alaska Legislature approves seafood task force for sector in ‘crisis’
The Alaska Legislature on Sunday approved creating a task force to make policy recommendations to help the beleaguered commercial fishing industry. The task force is modeled be off another legislative task force created more than 20 years ago to help the salmon industry. At the time, salmon fishermen were struggling with the impacts of low prices and competition with farmed salmon. Alaska’s commercial fishing sector has recently struggled with low prices, a global market swamped with low-priced Russian seafood, and the closure of several seafood processing plants. Salmon returns have crashed in critical fisheries across Alaska. The United Fishermen of Alaska estimates that the state’s economy lost over $2 billion in 2023 alone as a result of the commercial fishing sector’s struggles. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:00
Galveston shrimpers being run out of business due to low prices, overseas imports
Captain Jerome Kunz
Texas Gulf shrimpers are going out of business during what many are calling the worst period in the history of the industry. “You’ll see numerous boats up and down this dock and most of them are just set here,” Nikki Johnson-Kunz said as she stood along Pier 19 in Galveston. Pier 19 was once a bustling hub for Galveston’s shrimping fleet — from the same spot a few years ago, one could watch dozens of shrimp boats running back and forth to the Gulf and then to the seafood markets along the docks to sell their catch. Johnson-Kunz married into a Galveston family that’s been fishing the waters for shrimp for more than a century. They said business has never been as bad as it is now. “Our prices that we get paid per pound are under a dollar,” she said. “It’s sickening.” Video, >>click to read<< 10:52
‘Alarm bells should be going off’: P.E.I. fishers reflects on low prices, poor weather throughout 2023 spring lobster season
Charlie McGeoghegan, chair of the P.E.I. lobster marketing board, wants answers as to why the price of lobster per pound was so low throughout the 2023 spring season. According to McGeoghegan, the price of lobster was $13.50 per pound up until the start of the season when it suddenly dropped by more than six dollars. As a result, fishers in the province lost more than $300 million in revenue, as the yield last year was more than 47 million pounds. “Alarm bells should be going off with the province as well, that’s a lot of revenue,” said McGeoghegan. Lobster fisher Art MacDonald of Souris said he’s had a hard time remembering a colder and wetter fishing season. >click to read< 17:07
Alaska salmon fishermen fume over low prices, but processors say they’re hurting too
Aboard the F/V Five Star, his boat, Danielson and his deckhand put away as many pounds of fish as they could. They had no breakdowns. But his seafood processor is paying him 70 cents per pound for his salmon, half of last year’s price which means that instead of his usual six-figure haul for a summer of hard work, he might only break even, or go home to his family in Washington with $10,000, if he’s lucky. He added: “We’re up against something that’s out of our control, and that’s the processors killing us here.” In the past few weeks, thousands of fishermen across the state have found themselves in a similar predicament,,, Photos, >click to read< 08:52
Fishermen at Pillar Point hold fast for better days
Captain Mike Burian, who fishes under the vessel, Prime Time out of Pillar Point Harbor, bought a boat last year when it sounded like a good deal; however, his dream of running a profitable crabbing and salmon boat quickly turned into a nightmare after multiple delays in the season and various obstacles made it increasingly difficult to turn a profit. “I always wanted to do this and someone was selling the vessel, pods and permits and I thought it was a good idea at the time,” Burian said. “If I did well, I was going to do it full time and fish for salmon as well; but, at this time, there is no way to make a living with this as far as I can see.” >click to read< 08:47
Low prices, high costs face southwest Nova Scotia lobster fishermen
As captains and crews wait for an opening in the weather to drop their gear off southwest Nova Scotia, they’ve also got other big worries: low prices for their catch and historically high costs. The price at the wharf is expected to be somewhere around $6 to $6.25 a pound, down nearly half from $11.25 on opening day for Lobster Fishing Area 34 last season. The neighbouring LFA 33, which runs from about Halifax to Cape Sable Island, opened earlier this week but weather has meant most captains there have only had the opportunity to haul their traps once. >click to read< 16:08
Low prices, low catch wraps up P.E.I. spring lobster season
With global demand and lobster prices reaching record highs in Nova Scotia in the weeks leading up to P.E.I.’s spring season – around $17.50-18.50 a pound – many Island fishers were looking forward to a promising start to their season. “Typically, it drops a bit before we start because there are more boats in the water at that time, so we didn’t expect anywhere near that price,” said Charlie McGeoghegan, chair of the Lobster Marketing Board. “However, we did expect to start off where we left off last spring, which was in the $11-12 range.” That combined with the price of fuel being double what it was and bait being up 30 per cent, we thought maybe once we get a few weeks in, the price will get better. That’s what it did last year.” Instead, the prices dropped again by another $1.50 a pound, said McGeoghegan. Photos,>click to read<– 09:14
Petersburg to send salmon disaster declaration request
The numbers of salmon caught in the region this summer are some of the worst since Alaska became a state. “As far as the net fisheries go in Southeast, the net fisheries being the drift gillnet fishery and the purse seine fishery, we are looking at some all-time lows for salmon harvested in those fisheries,” said Troy Thynes, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s region one management coordinator for commercial fisheries. “The region 10-year average for the seine ex-vessel value is about $73.5 million,” Thynes said. “So this year’s value of eight million (dollars) is considerably less than that. And then the gillnet ex-vessel value, the recent 10-year average is about 27.4 million and right now we’re looking at around seven million, again very preliminary and we still have ongoing fisheries. These numbers will change.” For further comparison, the salmon harvest last year topped 101 million dollars and the year before 133 million. >click to read< 18:46
It aint looking good – Low prices, weak run hammer Copper River fishermen
Fishermen headed into the 2020 season knew it would be different, but in the weeks since the Copper River District opened on March 14, low prices and a weak run has dealt a one-two punch to fishermen. “The 2020 gillnet season for the Copper River and Prince William Sound is definitely the worst one I’ve experienced so far,” Mike Mickelson, a Cordova based fisherman, said. “The managers just have us closed for the Copper River fishery because they’re worried about getting escapement, >click to read< 10:33
On eve of lobster season, fishermen worry about low prices and high costs
Glace Bay harbour was a busy spot on Thursday, with lobster fishermen loading traps in preparation for setting day on Friday. It’s a time that is usually much anticipated among fishermen, but not this year. “I would say we’re going to lose 40 to 50 percent from last year to this year,” said Herb Nash. Nash has been a fisherman for more than 30 years and says he hasn’t seen prices this low since the seventies. “I don’t think our fishery is going to last two months anyway,” he said. “I think if we get two or three weeks out of it. They’re not going to be able to sell the lobster or prices are going to be that low, we’re not going to be able to afford it. We’re paying $1.25 pound for bait and we’re getting $5 dollars for lobster.” >click to read< 21:59
Gulf lobster fishermen offer to give up season
“Three dollars a pound is what we’re hearing,” said Susan Beaton. The Cape George, Antigonish County fisher was working on her new tiny home on Thursday. It looks out over the grounds she fishes each spring from her boat The UnManned. Water she doesn’t know if she’ll be fishing in two weeks. None of the 600 lobster fishermen along most of the Northumberland Strait and the Eastern Gulf of St. Lawrence do. “We need an answer last Friday,” said Duane Boudreau on Thursday. The president of the Gulf Bonafide Fishermen’s Association wants a ruling from Fisheries and Oceans Canada on whether there will be a season this year. >click to read< 10:06
Maine: Plenty of scallops, but prices are low
The price for scallops so far this season is considerably lower than last year. The Ellsworth American reported that with the start of the scallop season on Dec. 1 the price per pound is down $2 to $3 from 2016’s average of $12.77. It also appeared that scallops were plentiful, but small, which generally means lower prices. “I’ve heard the price is going to be low this year, but a lot of dealers were quoting prices last week that I thought were absurd,” Togue Brawn, owner of Downeast Dayboat Scallops in Portland, told the newspaper. click here to read the story 11:25
Lobstermen plagued by low catch, low prices
As the shedder, or soft shell, season winds down with higher value hard shell lobsters on the horizon, local lobstermen are hoping to turn what has so far been a dismal season around. Lobsters are in hiding, or so it seems to lobstermen. “I’d say we’ve caught about half the lobsters [than in recent years],” Stonington lobsterman Tony Bray said of the 2017 season. The Stonington Lobster Co-op, which buys a large proportion of the local catch, reported a 25 to 30 percent drop in volume over last year. “The lobsters are out there, so this is not likely reflective of a resource decline,” said Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries scientist Carla Guenther, who follows Department of Marine Resources data monitoring. “It may be reflective of a habitat shift as to where the lobsters are, and a behavior shift as a reaction to the colder water.” click here to read the story 15:16
Mississippi 2016 shrimp season began with small shrimp, low prices
“Shrimp season opened June 6, and about 200,000 pounds of brown shrimp were landed during the first week,” Burrage said. “The bad news is they were running about 50-60 or 60-70 shrimp per pound, which is even smaller than the shrimp were last year at opening.” In addition to brown shrimp, another 50,000 pounds of larger white shrimp were landed the first week of the season. These shrimp escaped harvest last year and now are sized at 16-20 per pound. “They were either jumbo or gumbo,” Burrage said, referring to extra-large shrimp or a smaller size suited only for use in stew. Burrage said prices have been terrible. Brown shrimp are selling at the factories for 55 to 75 cents a pound. The big, white shrimp are bringing $2.50 to $4.50, depending on whether they are sold to factories or used to fill orders for restaurant customers. Read the rest here 21:07
Louisiana: Shrimp season’s start isn’t a happy one – Low prices and fewer shrimp
Shrimp season opened Monday. Observers say fishermen are caught between small catches and low prices. There are two shrimping seasons, spring and fall. Spring is considered the brown shrimp season, which opened Monday. “The season opened today, and the catch is way off from what it usually is,” commercial fisherman Rodney Olander said. “The grade is way smaller than what we usually open with and, as usual, the price is down on us.” Olander has worked as a commercial fisherman for 37 years. He docks his boat at Cypremort Point State Park and shrimps in Vermillion and Cote Blanche bays. That area usually produces more white shrimp than brown. “We’ve been sitting idle for the last six months, waiting for the season to open,” Olander said. “The season opens — there is not a lot of shrimp. The shrimp are small. And they plan on cutting the prices on us.” Read the story here 18:32
“The folks in Washington, they’re just not doing their job,” – Low prices mark start of fall shrimp season
Area fishermen reported good catches but low prices during the first week of the fall shrimp season. On Monday the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries opened the shrimp season for waters within three miles of the coast. “They’re beautiful shrimp,” Carol Terrebonne, an owner of The Seafood Shed in Golden Meadow, said today. Clint Guidry, president of the Louisiana Shrimpers Association, said shrimpers are receiving roughly 60-65 percent of the prices they were last year. Contributing to the price drop is an influx of imported shrimp and reluctance from federal officials to enforce regulations already on the books, Guidry said. Read the rest here 07:28
Louisiana Shrimp Season begins – Good catches, low prices mark opening day
Area fishermen reported good catches but low prices on the opening day of the spring shrimp season. “It’s kind of early to predict it now,” said Al Marmande of Al’s Shrimp Co. in Dularge, who expects his first catches to come in Tuesday afternoon. Marmande said he will have a good sense of the season by the end of the week but has heard reports of a good amount of brown shrimp along the coast. “I’m hearing they’re catching a few small shrimp, but not too many large shrimp,” he said. “They’re catching,,, Read the rest here 11:49
Cold weather, low prices hurt lucrative elver market
Baby eels, called elvers, are Maine’s second most-valuable fishery after lobsters. The volume and value of the state’s elver fishery have boomed in recent years, with catch topping 18,000 pounds and $32 million in value for each of the past two years.The state, concerned about overfishing, instituted a quota this year for the first time. Read more here 04:05
Strong Catches, Low Prices – Lobster season is underway in the Bay of Fundy
A June report from Fisheries and Oceans Canada says Bay of Fundy records have been broken five years in a row. A spokesperson said it was too early to predict how this fall season will turn out. more@cbcnews 09:04
P.E.I. lobster fishermen, who started the fall season last weekend, are dreading a replay of a familiar story
While they have been fishing almost a week, processors have not yet announced a price for what they have been collecting at the wharf. Prices in New Brunswick are $ 2.50 a pound for canners and $3.00 a pound for markets, $0.60 less than in that province last fall. more@cbcnews
Soft-shell lobsters seem like hard sell in Maine – Low prices frustrate lobstermen as supply continues to exceed demand.
This lobster season has progressed more calmly than last year’s, with soft-shell lobsters appearing more slowly, rather than all at once. That has allowed Maine’s largest and most lucrative fishery to absorb the harvest over time, instead of having to handle it all at once, as happened last year. That glut led to a crash in lobster prices. more@portlandpressherald
