Tag Archives: price
Off Washington state’s coast, Dungeness crabbers get early start to season, haul in bounty
Some 60 vessels in Washington’s oceangoing crab fleet worked through a stormy December to bring in more than 4.69 million pounds of Dungeness in a strong start to the annual harvest. The ocean harvest has unfolded in a stretch of coastal waters from Klipsan Beach south to the Columbia River. Fishers also have had to endure some tough, chilly weather during the final weeks of 2021. “We’re all from Alaska so it seems pretty normal to us,” said Daniel Crome, who was raised in Petersburg, Alaska, and fishes out of Westport with a five-person crew that as the catch rates dropped off, was cut to four. Back at the docks, these Dungeness have fetched $4.75 a pound or more. >click to read< 08:23
California crabbers concede 25 cents
Local commercial Dungeness crab fishermen return to their trade today but will receive 25 cents per pound less for their catch than when they started the season earlier this month. Following a meeting on Monday, crabbers in Brookings, Crescent City, Trinidad, Eureka and Fort Bragg agreed to resume fishing on Tuesday, said Rick Shepherd, president of the Del Norte Fisherman’s Marketing Association. Seafood buyers are now paying fishermen $2.50 per pound, Shepherd said. “We’re trying to hold that $2.75, but we don’t know how long we’d have to sit to do it,” he said. “There’s not much else we can do.” >click to read<11:07 
Shell, lacked? Lobster catch might be much less this year
Maine’s lobster haul might be less this year, and prices have drifted downward for both lobstermen and consumers, members of the industry say. American lobster fishing is in the midst of a multiyear boom, with Maine fishermen setting a record of nearly 131 million pounds last year. Fishermen in the state have caught more than 100 million pounds for six years in a row after never previously reaching that total. But fishermen saw smaller catches this summer, and some in the industry believe the catch could be as much as 30 percent off this year, click here to read the story 07:47
Maine lobster landings, price draw concern
Fishermen have reported catching far fewer lobsters this season than last year’s record-setting numbers. But the scarcity does not seem to have translated into much upward pressure on prices. While harvesters and dealers hold boat price information close to the vest, unofficial reports indicate that boat prices have actually dropped to $2.50 per pound or worse.,, Islesford lobsterman Bruce Fernald, part of the Cranberry Isles Fishermen’s Co-Op, said his catch is down about 20 percent this year. click here to read the story 09:19
North Carolina: Local shrimpers still competing with the flood of imported shrimp
Shrimp is the second largest commercial fishery in North Carolina, bested only by blue crabs in pounds landed and dockside value. But unfortunately, within the last 30 years or so, shrimp harvesting has been hit the hardest out of all the commercial seafood industries. A study funded by Sea Grant shows the number of seafood processors declined by 36 percent between 2000 and 2011, causing the economic value of North Carolina’s catch to decline from about $109 million in 1995 to $79 million in 2013. One of the main problems with the state’s seafood industry today is the workforce. Older fishermen are leaving the industry faster than younger watermen are joining their ranks. When adjusted for inflation, the price of shrimp has dropped by more than half since the late 1970s and imported shrimp is a big reason why. click here to read the story 15:23
Not your grandfather’s fishery
The harvesting is so different — bigger boats, bigger fishing effort, deeper-water fishing, so much further from shore on average, more ambitious in all respects. The boats themselves are equipped with everything under the sun to make the task more manageable. The knowledge is much more substantial. We live in the Facebook Generation. Everything is visible and transparent, whether publishing a newspaper or determining the value of a lobster, there are absolutely no secrets. And fish harvesters make it their business to know what a lobster is selling for in Thunder Bay on a Saturday night. The world is smaller — direct flights from Halifax to Europe and Asia make transit time for premium quality fisheries a fraction of what was required previously. click here to read the op-ed by Stewart Lamont, managing director of Tangier Lobster Company 19:26
Nova Scotia: High winds and rough seas hampers fishing in first weeks of lobster season
High winds and rough seas hampered fishing efforts during the opening three weeks of the commercial lobster along the south shore, negatively impacting landings and driving up the shore price to $7 leading up to Christmas Day. “Catches are way down,” said Clark’s Harbour buyer Gary Blades, C&R Blades Ltd. as he watched lobster fishing boats returning to port on Dec. 20, after almost a week of sitting idle due to the weather. “There’s no comparison to last year,” said Blades, when fine weather prevailed throughout December, enabling fishing boats to get out and check their gear almost every day. All is not gloom however, says Lockeport buyer Mike Cotter, Cotter’s Ocean Products. “Things are moving. Lobsters are selling,” he said. “The price is at $7 so fishermen are pretty happy with that. There’s been no tragedies. No one is going to be stuck with any great volume on land, which is good. Read the story here 08:53
Price, and not crab, on the table: Buyers, commercial fishermen discussing rates
Crab pots were set off the coast of Pillar Point Harbor near Half Moon Bay Friday and will be offered to buyers seeking to determine how much meat the crustaceans will yield, said Jim Anderson, a crabber and member of the state’s Dungeness Crab Task Force. With forecasts predicting poor ocean conditions for this weekend’s kickoff to an abnormally short season, Anderson said the annual process of determining how meaty the crab are isn’t expected to set fishermen back too far. “On Monday they’ll have an understanding of what the crab looks like and then set the price. Then sometime shortly thereafter we’ll go fishing,” Anderson said. “We always do this to give them some kind of idea of what the value of the crab is. We waited this long, we surely don’t want to go harvest bad crab for the consumer.” Read the article here 08:45
Bristol Bay fishermen aghast at 50-cents-a-pound price for sockeye
Most Bristol Bay fishermen were shocked and dismayed when they heard last week that major buyers would pay 50 cents a pound for . That’s a throwback to the dock prices paid from 2002 to 2004, and is far below the $1.20 or more paid last year. A late surge of reds produced catches of nearly 13 million fish in the final week of this year’s run, bringing the total by July 23 to 34.5 million fish. Fish were still trickling in, and state managers, who called the season an anomaly, said the final tally should reach the projected harvest of 37.6 million sockeye. Read the rest here 15:35
