Tag Archives: Snow crab season
P.E.I.’s snow crab season wrapping up as right whale protection begins
An early start to the season is paying off for many P.E.I. snow crab fishers, with good catches and better prices than last year. An added bonus: for the second straight year, most will have caught their quota before endangered North Atlantic right whales move into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, prompting protective measures to prevent entanglement in fishing gear. Alden Gaudet said fishers are much better prepared this year than they were two years ago in case of closures due to right whales. “This year, we’ve lobbied to be able to immediately remove our buoys from these traps and use this ropeless, on-demand [system, without having to wait 48 hours to reset back in these areas. So it will make things a lot easier,” he said. Photos, Video, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:42
Head of seafood processors’ association says he faced threats over crab dispute
The head of the Association of Seafood Producers says he and his family faced threats in recent weeks during the conflict over snow crab. “There has been threats against me for the last 30 days, and I have been in regular contact with the [Royal Newfoundland Constabulary],” ASP executive director Jeff Loder told Radio-Canada Tuesday. “They were directed toward my personal safety, directed towards my credibility, directed towards our members, directed towards our office. And it was really, really inappropriate. I understand this is an emotional time, I understand that this is about people’s livelihoods. This is a serious issue…. However, making threats is entirely unacceptable.” more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 16:48
FFAW blasts price-setting panel after it sides with ASP on crab-pricing formula
With the time-sensitive snow crab season set to begin in a few days, fish harvesters in Newfoundland and Labrador are once again talking about tying up their boats due to the price of crab. The province’s price-setting panel sided with the Association of Seafood Producers on Monday evening, setting a price floor of $2.60 per pound with the ability go up as market factors change. The panel rejected a formula proposed by the Food, Fish & Allied Workers union, which was closely tied to the formula suggested by an independent report at the end of last season. “There was a better way to do this,” said FFAW president Greg Pretty. “The work was already done by Glen Blackwood in his report. The Blackwood formula provided a way for harvesters to be paid a fair market share, but that was tossed aside for a formula that is not tied to information harvesters can trust.” more, >>click to read<< 11:26
Single Snow Crab Gets Auctioned for Record 10 Million Yen in Japan
Snow crab season in Japan kicked off with a record auction this week, after a single 1.2-kilogram snow crab sold for an incredible 10 million yen (about $66,000 USD) at the Hamasaka fishing port in the coastal town of Shinonsen. The crab was a highly sought-after “matsuba-gani,” which refers to male snow crabs that are found in the Sanin region along the south-western coast of Japan’s main island Honshu. The lucky buyer was restaurant owner Ryosuke Uemura, 47, proprietor of the Ryouriya Uemura restaurant in the Chuo Ward of Kobe, who placed the winning bid on Nov 6., the first day of snow crab season.”I wanted to get one on day one, no matter what. >>click to read<< 07:45
Understanding the Bering Sea snow crab collapse
The Bering Sea snow crab season was canceled this year after billions of crabs disappeared – devastating a commercial fishing industry worth $200 million dollars and the livelihoods of those who depend on it. Now, fishermen and researchers are working to figure out what happened. On this Alaska Insight, host Lori Townsend is joined by Gabriel Prout, a crab fisherman and owner of the F/V Silver Spray, and Erin Fedewa, a fisheries biologist with the federal government, to discuss the impacts and potential causes of the crash. Video, >click to watch< 10:56
Cape Breton fishermen say ice was a problem because DFO didn’t follow its own policy
Some Cape Breton fishermen say if the Department of Fisheries and Oceans hadn’t opened the Gulf of St. Lawrence snow crab season too early, icebreakers would not have been needed to get boats in and out of Cheticamp harbour. Andrew Bourgeois, president of the Gulf of Nova Scotia Fishermen’s Coalition and a director of the Gulf fleet planning board, said DFO officials usually agree to wait until all the coasts are ice-free, but not this year. “I think if DFO would have followed their protocol, I don’t think there would have been an issue with the ice,” he said. “The protocol says that if there was ice at 20 fathoms or deeper that it shouldn’t open, it wouldn’t open. And they opened it anyways.” >click to read< 13:11
Starvation price for snow crab fishermen
A week into the snow crab fishing season, processors in Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on Friday agreed to a temporary dock price of $2.25/lb to $2.50/lb. “There’s more inventory on the market now than we thought, says Jean-Paul Gagne, Director General of the Quebec Fisheries Industry Association (AQIP). For his part, Marc-Olivier des Îles-de-la-Madeleine’s captain, Marco Turbide, promises to put his cages back this spring. “Expecting a price of only two or three dollars a pound doesn’t give ambition, he comments. It’s not fun. For a heavily indebted fisherman like me, we can’t expect to make a profit in 2023 because of the significant loss from crab last year. If we agree to $4/lb, I’m very I’ll be happy!” >click to read< 11:45
Conservation concerns cancel Alaska’s Bering snow, king crab seasons
Alaska officials have canceled the fall Bristol Bay red king crab harvest, and in a first-ever move, also scuttled the winter harvest of smaller snow crab. The move is a double whammy to a fleet from Alaska, Washington and Oregon pursuing Bering Sea crab in harvests that as recently as 2016 grossed $280 million. “I am struggling for words. This is so unbelievable that this is happening,” said Jamie Goen, executive director of the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers. “We have third-generation fishermen who are going to go out of business.” >click to read< 14:47
Is ‘Deadliest Catch’ Scripted? “Wild” Bill Wichrowski on Filming Season 17 During Coronavirus. (Tough to script!)
The series captures dramatic events that seem like a scene from a Hollywood film and the disproportionate flare-ups in the interpersonal relationships between the crew members. Naturally, it has got the viewers questioning whether all that we see in the series is real or not. The Emmy-nominated show has often been praised for its realism. Unfortunately, a couple of the cast members also revealed that the drama among the fishers is scripted. >click to read< Captain “Wild” Bill Wichrowski on Filming ‘Deadliest Catch’ Season 17 During COVID – While crab fishing in Alaska is already an 
ultra-risky venture, the stakes are even higher on Season 17 because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Season 17 will truly be unlike any other because it was filmed entirely during the pandemic. There were multiple COVID outbreaks at major crab processing plants, Nobody was allowed off the boat or even on the deck while the crab was being taken off the boat. Video, >click to read< 14:50
Cape Breton snow crab season short but lucrative
Glen Burns doesn’t bother kicking himself over it too much anymore. “I was never much of a gambler,” said Burns. “You won’t see me at the casino or down at the fire hall.” It was 2002, he had a one-year-old son and lobster gear he’d just taken over from his father. What the Margaree Harbour fisherman didn’t have was $120,000 to buy three crab traps worth of quota to add to the handful he’d taken over with his dad’s licence. And what neither he nor anyone else knew at the time was how valuable the crustacean would become to Cape Breton’s west coast. >click to read<
Snow Crab season opens Friday for Area 12, Fishermen expect a strong price.
ALBERTON — Carter Hutt anticipates there will be a drive on Wednesday morning to get crab boats ready for a season which is scheduled to get underway on Friday. Hutt is president of the 27-member P.E.I. Snow crab Association. He learned soon after a Tuesday afternoon conference call with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans that fishermen on the call agreed unanimously to have the snow crab season for Area 12, which includes P.E.I. boats, commence at 4 a.m. Friday. The opening, however, remains dependent upon favourable ice and wind conditions. Even before the conference call, Hutt was optimistic the season would start Friday. Read the rest here 17:52
PEI Snow crab season delayed by ice in Gulf – expected to start on May 1
Snow crab fishermen on P.E.I. are anxious to get out on the water since ice conditions have delayed the season. cbcnews Read more here 14:28
