The weather is good, the crabs are healthy and the Christmas and New Year's market is just about upon us. We fishermen are confused as to why seafood buyers - led by mega-processor Pacific Coast Seafood Co. (or P Coast) - won't budge on the price. Since this company buys the majority of the crab, other processors generally follow the company's lead.
All of the sudden P Coast has agreed to $1.60 per pound - 25 cents less than
Crab shed their shells or “molt” every year. This allows them to grow. The states collect crab and test them to assure that the crab are in fact full in the shell and ready to be harvested.
According to a recent newspaper article, Brent Searle, special assistant to the director of the Department of Agriculture, was puzzled over the demand for more testing. The Dept. of Ag “oversees” the negotiations between crabbers and processors. This is so the different fishermen’s groups can barter without violating federal antitrust laws.
Searle is further quoted as saying, "The state tests did yield in most areas the highest fill-out of any tests in history. One of the processors (Pacific) does have the capacity to hold supply ... but we don't have any data on the company's inventory. There's been a lot of time and effort spent refining the state tests and that still doesn't seem to give the processors enough confidence in what the tests are saying."
Every year we are allowed to “set” our crab gear approximately three days ahead of the season opener. This pre-season soak time allows crab to gather in the pots so that when the season opens there is something to catch. The weather for the pre-season set time was good. One week into the open season, the weather has been perfect. Now P Coast allows the processors to raise the price and the boats to go – and the weather forecast is not good.
This is still a derby fishery. Everyone will go fishing, regardless of the weather.
Stay tuned.
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