The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is developing a management plan for the Jonah crab fishery in the northeastern United States, responding to landings in New England states surging to 17 million pounds last year.
“We believe the increase in landings is due to an increase in demand,” Megan Ware, fishery management plan coordinator for the ASMFC, told SeafoodSource. Landings – primarily in Massachusetts and Rhode Island – have increased by nearly seven-fold from 2010 to 2014. The fishery exceeded USD 13 million (EUR 11.7 million) in value in 2014, an 800 percent increase from 2010, according to Ware.
“Given the increase in market demand and associated targeted fishing pressure, a fishery management plan is an appropriate step that will provide the framework for interstate and federal regulations which will be necessary to sustain Jonah Crab,” said Jeff Nichols, communications director for the Maine Department of Marine Resources, in a statement.
The spike in demand is likely because Jonah crab is a relatively inexpensive substitute for stone crab claws and other popular crab such as Dungeness, “whose price has soared,” Ware said.
More fishermen are also targeting Jonah crab because of the “poor condition” of the southern New England lobster stock. Jonah crab is a bycatch of lobster, and was traditionally not utilized extensively. “While abundance and landings are high in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank, the stock in Southern New England is in poor condition,” Ware said.
As a result, the ASMFC developed a draft Fishery Management Plan for Jonah crab, which the seafood industry and consumers can comment on through 24 July. ASMFC will also hold a public hearing on the draft plan on 6 July in Maine. The Lobster Board will take final action on the Draft FMP at its meeting in early August.
However, some distributors and processors don’t believe there is enough demand for Jonah crab. It doesn’t ship well, so it must be used locally. And it would be a major investment for lobster or crab processors to set up a separate line or facility to process Jonah crab. “It would be difficult to put money in assembling a plant. I’m not sure you would have the source all the time,” said Peter McAleney, owner of retail and wholesale operation New England Lobster Pound in Portland, Maine. Plus, during the height of the lobster season, “We don’t really have time for it.”
While the ASMFC acknowledges that there are only a handful of processors specializing in the fishery, restaurants and grocery chains are interested in buying more Jonah crab. For example, Delhaize America initiated the Jonah Crab Fishery Improvement Project, a multi-stakeholder effort to improve the fishery’s performance, when the company realized that Jonah crab did not meet the criteria for sustainable harvest, which they require for all seafood sold in stores.
Click here to comment on the draft FMP. http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/555f9a12pr18JonahCrabDraftAm_PublicComment.pdf
