| Ice hanging on in Bering Sea crab grounds, frustrating harvesters |
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SEAFOOD.COM NEWS [KUCB.org] by Stephanie Joyce April 20, 2012
Record-breaking ice in the Bering Sea continues to take a toll on the snow crab industry. Crabbers, processors and regulators met last week to discuss the possibility of extending the season, but the unpredictability of the ice is frustrating planning efforts. Last week marked a new low point for the Bering Sea snow crab fleet. With sea ice covering most of the fishing grounds and more than half of the fleet tied up in harbor, boats only managed to deliver one and half million pounds of crab. That’s the lowest weekly delivery so far in what’s already been an unusually slow season. Although fishing did pick up over the weekend, the surge in activity might be short-lived. The extended forecast is calling for ice to cover the entire Bering Shelf – including most of the crab grounds – by the end of the week. That doesn’t bode well for crabbers harvesting the remaining third of the snow crab quota by the time the season ends on May 31. One possibility discussed at last week’s meeting was extending the snow crab season into June. Crabbers have been pushing the idea for several months now, but processors are less enthusiastic and Fish and Game is waiting to see how things play out. “Our first option would certainly be to have the season done by the end of May,” says shellfish biologist Wayne Donaldson. He says Fish and Game is concerned that extending the season will interfere with the snow crab molting and mating period. They’re also worried that it could affect the overfished tanner crab species. But Donaldson stresses that any extension is purely hypothetical at the moment. “We’re still in the monitoring mode, just assessing the ice reports as they come out three times a week, trying to keep a handle on what the weekly harvest rate is. We still hold out some hope, although that hope seems to be diminishing by the week, that we could take the TAC by the end of May.” The forecast isn’t promising. National Weather Service ice forecaster Kathleen Cole says the long-term outlook is for ice covering the fishing grounds until mid-May and she says even that might be optimistic. “I will update this at the beginning of next month and as I look at it now, I see some areas where I think I’ve maybe gone a little bit too far, but I also see areas where I may not have gone far enough. In fact, the last ice to St. Paul is one that I’m thinking I may need to extend.” That uncertainty makes the crab fleet nervous. As one crabber said at last week’s meeting, it’s hard to catch crab if you’re constantly running from the ice. “All we need is some southerly winds, sustained southerly winds, but right now the next week doesn’t look very productive. So, unfortunately, we’re in a tight spot here: we just can’t get to where we need to get to. So, that’s just the way it is, I guess.” The uncertainty for crabbers won’t resolved for another few weeks. Fish and Game has said it won’t decide until at least the end of the month whether to extend the snow crab season. |
Alaska crab organization praises IUU bill before Senate
SEAFOOD.COM NEWS [seafoodnews.com] Dec 20, 2011
The Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, a seafood industry trade association representing nearly 70% of the Bering Sea crab harvesters, supports those senators and NOAA officials who brought increased attention to the problem of Illegal, Unreported, or Unregulated (IUU) fishing.
On Tuesday December 13, 2011 members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the Senate Oceans Caucus held a briefing to introduce S. 1980, the Pirate Fishing Elimination Act. This bill, which enjoys bipartisan support, would seek to prevent, deter, and eliminate IUU fishing through the enactment of port State measures.
These port State measures would bar pirate fishing vessels from entering ports and selling their illegal catch and would also establish mechanisms to ensure compliance. The United States, long a leader in addressing the issue of IUU, already has such measures in place. This latest development in the fight against IUU would help to “level the playing field” and make sure other Nations do their part in combating this worldwide problem.
“This is an excellent first step, but more can be done to eradicate the problem,” says Jake Jacobsen. Jacobsen, a Bering Sea crab industry veteran and head of the ICE cooperative, along with Arni Thomson of the Alaska Crab Coalition and the United Fishermen of Alaska, were the only fishermen representatives on the panel assembled to brief Senators and their staff.
The Alaska crabbers got involved in the issue after a period of extremely low crab prices in 2005 and 2006 that they felt were largely caused by a huge influx of illegal Russian king crab.
WE HAVE FROZEN RED KING CRAB!
With the 2011 Alaska Red King Crab over, restaurants will soon realize that a shortage of supply for 2012 will take place. Everything we have heard is that approximately 80% of this year’s catch has or is being exported to Japan. Based on a 7,843,000 pound quota, a 64% recovery from live weight to frozen cooked clusters, which translates to about 5,000,000 pounds, less the 80% going to Japan, that leaves a balance for the domestic market and other export markets at a measly 1,000,000 pounds.
We have finished our purchases for the year and will “as always” have inventory to hopefully last us until next year. We are beginning to sense that the “shock” of high prices are starting to stabilize and buyers are now beginning to realize that there normal supplier may be short.
We can ship small quantities on a daily basis via FedEx and also larger quantities by truck. If you want to insure that you’ll be able to serve Alaska Red King Crab give us a call and will supply you with up to the minute pricing and availability.
FRESH RED KING CRAB SEASON IS OVER!
We are shipping our last load of fresh Alaska Red King Crab today. Unfortunately due to the 47% reduction in quota and great crabbing, this year’s fishery (season) has been drastically reduced. Initial reports seem to show that approximately 75 to 80% of this year’s crab is going to Japan. We will have frozen available throughout the year.
NEXT UP! Opilio Snow Crab
The quota has been drastically increased from approximately 54,000,000 pounds to 88,000,000. Prices should come down from 2011 prices and the season should be longer, possibly into late April. We are looking into offering fresh cooked Opilio Snow Crab. Crab deliveries should begin around January 10th or thereabouts. Our plan is to pack only +8 oz. clusters or possibly even +10 oz.
A FAST AND FURIOUS KING CRAB SEASON!
After spending an average of 42 days in Dutch Harbor the past two years, Eric and I are home after spending only 8 days in Dutch. The smaller quota this season and outstanding crabbing has made this year remind of us the old “Derby Style” days when 375 boats would catch the quota in two to four days.
COMING IN JANUARY
The Opilio Snow Crab season gets into full swing beginning the first week of January. With an 88,000,000 pound quota the season will definitely stretch in late April. This will give us an opportunity to do a FRESH COOKED CLUSTER program. We anticipate that prices will probably be less than last year as well. We will also offer frozen cooked too.
FRESH FLORIDA STONE CRAB CLAWS
The season is about the same as last year. Short supplies on Colossal and other sizes available fairly regularly.
UPDATE FROM DUTCH HARBOR ON KING CRAB!
The weather the past two days has been brutal out on the crab grounds. We had anticipated the season would be over this weekend and now it looks like it’ll be Tuesday. The crab are averaging between 6.0 and 6.2 pounds for the most part. The crab is really clean and meat fill is great.
Have chartered two planes today for our fresh shipments. We will ship fresh next week weather permitting. So far we are batting 100% on getting all our fresh out on time.
Still trying to figure out what data and research they are using as everyone is on the crab. Water temperature has warmed up to temperatures four or five years ago and crab is where they were back then. It’s promising for the future. A lot of skippers are seeing male crab that is just under the legal size so next year they will be “keepers”.
Once again our partner in Dutch Harbor has done a brilliant job with our fresh crab program along with our frozen orders. We’ve always said they produce the best crab and this year is no different. We’ve also gotten a lot of support from the fleet, delivering “B&C” share crab to us.
Sales are down a bit this year due to high prices but with maybe only 1,000,000 pounds coming south, you won’t be seeing ALASKA RED KING CRAB on as many menu’s this coming year.
What’s happening in Dutch
We are a week into the 2011 Red Crab Fishery, and the fleet is on the Crab. The Crab is clean, and Skippers are seeing great numbers in their gear. We spent some time with our friends on the F/V Arctic Sea who came in with 300k. Captain Owen had strings with 70 – 120 Legal Males per pot. It’s looking like the quota will be caught by next weekend. The plants are booked with scheduled deliveries everyday this week as everyone is on the Crab. Reports from the Fleet are that water temperatures are where they were 5 years ago unlike the abnormally cold water they have been seeing the past 4 years.
2011 RED KING CRAB QUOTA ANNOUNCED!
Alaska Fish & Game announced this year’s Red King Crab quota on Monday (Oct. 3rd). As expected the quota has been drastically reduced by a whopping 47%.
In 2010 the total quota was 14,800,000 pounds and this upcoming season’s quota is 7,834,000 pounds. Recovery from live weight to cooked clusters is .635%, which translates this year to 4,975,000 pounds of clusters.
Japan will be very agressive this year, most likely taking around 3,200,000 pounds leaving a balance of about 1,700,000 for other export markets and the U.S. domestic market. Supplies should be extremely tight.
No relief is in sight over the next 4 to 7 years, so expect quota’s to continue to be reduced or even worse yet a complete closure within the next couple of years.
RED KING CRAB QUOTA FOR 2011
We are expecting Alaska Fish & Game to announce quota for the 2011 Bristol Bay Red King Crab fishery around the second or third week
of September. It is starting to look like a very interesting year. The Japanese Yen is about 7% stronger than it was last November. Combined
with no inventory, drastically reduced quota’s out of Norway and Russia and it all adds up to strong demand.
As I mentioned earlier, I will be scratching off my bucket list “Do a King Crab trip” this October 11th when I head out of Dutch on the F/V
Arctic Sea, on a seven day trip. I will be updating our blog daily from out at sea so check back beginning October 11th.
COST RECOVERY CRAB
Alaska Fish & Game has announced that The Crab Broker was the successful bidder in the 2011 Cost Recovery fishery.
The F/V Arctic Sea, Captain Owen Kvinge and his crew will head out of Dutch Harbor on October 1st and will make his first delivery October 11th. We will be delivering fresh cooked clusters of Red King Crab on Friday, October 14th. The second delivery will be on October 18th.
I’ll be in Dutch and on the dock when they arrive. If you’d like to order fresh, we’ll start taking orders October 1st.
