The delay in California Dungeness crab fishing is having ripple effects throughout the retail and restaurant industries, and – what’s worse – some believe the fishery may not open until January.
The San Francisco Bay area season was scheduled to start 15 November, but the California Department of Fish and Wildlife shut it down because of high levels of neurotoxins detected in crab samples. The Oregon, Washington and Northern California season is set to open 1 December, but toxic algae bloom levels may delay that season as well.
Fish and Wildlife directors for California, Oregon and Washington are scheduled to meet this Friday to discuss whether to delay the 1 December start. According to the Pacific Fisheries Information Network, total landings for Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington in 2014-2015 totaled about 34 million pounds, with California accounting for nearly half of that.
If the Oregon season is delayed, “it indicates they are erring on the side of caution. We don’t want to deliver product that is not safe for consumers,” said Hugh Link, executive director of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission. However, once given the all-clear, the crabs will likely be in high demand.
“Our crabs are full and ready to go. They exceed all the amount of meat fill that you are supposed to use for the opener,” Link said. “When they come to market will be full meat, good marketable crab.”
Despite that bit of good news, the California delay is already having a huge financial impact on commercial fishermen, distributors, retailers, restaurants and others who market crab.
“In the week before Thanksgiving and Christmas, we use around 8,000 to 10,000 pounds a week,” said Paul Johnson, owner of Monterey Fish Market, a retailer and wholesaler. On the retail side, Dungeness crab makes up 50 to 60 percent of the market’s sales this time of year, according to Johnson.
“This time of year is typically a little slow and crabs put an aura of an excitement around seafood. As a result, our overall sales are down 10 percent to 15 percent,” Johnson said.
However, to make up for the lack of Dungeness, Monterey Fish is promoting fresh-picked Peekytoe Maine crab, which is very similar to Dungeness. In addition, “we are going to take 1.5-pound lobsters and sell them at a flat USD 15 (EUR 14.04) rate – quite a bit under our normal markup – to make people feel better about the whole thing,” Johnson said.
Johnson has never seen a toxic algae bloom that has lasted this long, but attributes the growth to the warm water temperature due to the impending El Nino. “We usually get one good storm and it will be a matter of a couple of weeks where the crabs get back to where they ought to be,” he said. However, by the time the storms hit and the crab recovers, it could be as late as January, Johnson predicted.
