The Alaska longline and community development quota season for sablefish started 16 March and runs to 7 November. The longline quota was increased 14 percent to 13,833 metric tons, with gains for the Southeast, and reductions for the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands regions.
Sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria), informally called black cod, is caught from Baja California to Alaska and across to northern Japan, but Alaska is the main exporter, with British Columbia a distant second. Most sablefish is frozen and exported in J-cut H&G form to Japan, where it is called “gindara.”
About 9,000 metric tons, three-quarters of the U.S. catch, is exported, with 80 percent of that going to Japan. Other Asian markets have been growing gradually, and American fine-dining restaurants have been substituting sablefish for Chilean sea bass (Patagonian toothfish), which gets a bad rap from conservation organizations.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that at the end of last year’s season in November, the average Alaska ex-vessel price was USD 5.72 per pound. Prices dip in late spring when landings peak. Smaller trawl-caught sablefish suffer more bruising than longline sablefish, but usually run a buck cheaper than the larger line-caught fish. By the time those fish are processed and traded wholesale in the Lower 48, prices run about USD 11 per pound for 5- to7-pound fish, USD 10 for 4-5s, and USD 9 for 3-4s.
Last year, the strong yen supported demand in Japan. The yen traded at 78 to the U.S. dollar at the end of the season last November. A weakening since February 2012 to 82 yen per dollar may soften demand. Increased quota will also work to lower prices, but a lowering of the halibut catch may prompt substitution between the two.
Sable Fish Canada Ltd. promoted lightly smoked aquaculture product at the recent Japan International Seafood and Technology Expo in Osaka. It was pre-sliced, which has become the standard for large conveyor belt sushi chains, which now do little of their own slicing.
Director of Marketing Paul Simpson said his company was the first to introduce farmed sablefish. Hatchery production was developed on Salt Springs Island, British Columbia, and the first hatchery fish were put in the water in 2005. They take 2.5 years to reach a 2.5 to 3 kilogram market weight. Production has gradually been ramped up. Chilled sablefish air-flown from Canada is marketed in Japan by Blue Link Corp. of Shizuoka Prefecture under the brand “Kirari.”
Simpson said he had previously worked in Hokkaido for a Japanese fishing company and observed the increasing price and scarcity of sablefish, which presented an opportunity for farmed product.
The Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance, which supports the hatchery project, claims sablefish are overfished and that farming will take pressure off the wild stock.
While there are large fluctuations in the stock over time, these reflect exceptional recruitment years of juveniles, rather than overfishing. NOAA lists the resource as “not overfished.”
The fishery in British Columbia earned Marine Stewardship Council certification in 2010, and Alaska sablefish was awarded independent, third-party Responsible Fisheries Management Certification based on guidelines of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in October 2011.
Owners of IFQ rights may not realize the rewards of their stewardship if many B.C. salmon farmers branch out to sablefish in future, but for now farmed volume is too low to have much influence.
