By GARRET JAROS/YachatsNews
Word along the docks is the Dungeness crab harvest has dropped off markedly in comparison with this time last season – but prices paid to fishermen are considerably higher.
Oregon’s Dungeness season was delayed from its earliest possible start date of Dec. 1 to allow crab in certain coastal zones to gain more meat. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife eventually decided to divide the opener into three segments to accommodate crab reaching the meat criteria in some locations but not in others.
The first area to open Dec. 16 was Cape Foulweather just north of Otter Rock south to the California border. Next came Foulweather north to Cape Falcon north of Manzanita on Dec. 31. The final opening was Thursday from Falcon to the Washington border, which includes the Columbia River, and coincides with the southern Washington opener.
Oregon’s Dungeness crab fishery is the most valuable of all the coastal fisheries, bringing in $80 million to $90 million to the crab fleet the past two seasons.
“It has been a little bit slower, just for numbers from the opening until now, compared with last year,” said Vanya Taylor of Newport, who owns the FV/Gooney Bird. “But we’re still finding a couple crab here and there. We started down south covering from outside Yachats up to Newport basically.”
The Gooney Bird has landed about 16,000 pounds of Dungeness so far this year but has been plagued by one repair after another.
“My skipper has been out filling the tank then all of a sudden something breaks,” Taylor said. “So right from opening day it’s been fill up, come in and off load 3,000 to 4,000 pounds and then get back out weather willing.”
There have been some stormy days and “big rolling seas” that have kept the Gooney, which has a 200-pot permit, dockside.
The price paid to fishermen for the live crab market at the start of the season began at about $3.10 a pound in Newport, but has since climbed to nearly $5 a pound.
“I got no complaints on the prices whatsoever,” Taylor said as his boat unloaded its catch dockside with broker Pacific Living Seafood of Newport. “We always get treated good here so all-in-all, I’m happy with the prices. Last trip we got $4.50 a pound.”
The opening price at the beginning of last season, which was delayed until Jan. 15 was $2.61 per-pound according to ODFW. The price dropped to $2.13 in February – a near historic low, which led to a significant portion of the Newport fleet tying off at the docks for nearly two weeks in an unofficial work stoppage in an effort to persuade processors to increase prices.
In March the price bumped up to $2.78, then $3.78 in April, $4.87 in May and June before hitting the season’s high of $5.00 in July, before closing out at $4.68 in August.
As far as a prognosis for crab numbers the rest of the season, Taylor is always hopeful and said “We’ll just keep grinding away and we’ve got lots of the season to go.”
The dockside talk
The crew at Pacific Living have been working long hours to offload this year’s catch. Dock manager James Parrish estimates they had some 24- to 36-hour stretches, including during the recent ice storm, which coated their clothes in ice as they worked. But the dock was without power for only six hours, he said.
Lilli Gustafson, who manages Pacific Living’s Newport operation, said despite the crush of boats coming in to unload, the catch has dropped off significantly more than anticipated.
“It’s such a surprise because last year we had such good numbers all the way until the ending date,” she said. “In comparison with other years, it seems like a drastic drop.”
The first crab pot pulls of the year are always the best, but by this year’s third pick “everyone was just kind of like ‘Oh my goodness’,” Gustafson said. “And out in the ocean they are seeing a lot more females than anything, which is very strange for this time of year – still a winter month.”
Newport buyers are currently in a bit of a price war, so whoever is paying the highest will get the most business, she said. Pacific Living set its $3.10 per pound to start the season and continues to be among the buyers offering the highest price. Gustafson refrained from saying exactly where they are now but said it’s nearly $5 a pound.
“Let’s just say the average price is $4.50 right now,” she said. “That’s what most guys are paying here.”
Processing giant Pacific Seafood’s Newport plant has been fairly steady with live market prices. They dropped to $3.75 last week, but then jumped back to the average this week.
For the most part, crabs coming out of California are subpar so far this season, Gustafson said. And Westport in Washington at Gray’s Harbor, which is where most the volume for Washington comes from, is scheduled to open Monday.
The segmented opening along the West Coast this year has been a leading factor in fishermen getting paid better, Parrish said. When Oregon, Washington and California open at once the market is flooded with crab, which drops the prices price paid to fishermen.
“Last year we had a tri-state opener and I don’t think the price got above $3 a pound,” Parrish said. “When you compare that with the price of fuel, the guys were going broke.”
The price of bait is another consideration. When the weather prohibits boats from getting out regularly, the bait of choice is Razor clams, which is like candy to crab. But their cost is comparable to what fishermen are getting for their crab.
Crab counts
A direct comparison with the amount of crab caught so far this season with last season is a little problematic because last season’s opener was delayed until Jan. 1 and opened along the entire Oregon coast, while this year’s first opening was mid-December.
However, a comparison of the catches during the first month-and-a-half of each season shows that approximately 14.4 million pounds were caught last season.
So far this season Oregon’s commercial Dungeness fleet has landed 12.7 million pounds, according to Troy Buell, ODFW’s fishery management program leader. Landings at Newport lead the way with 6.65 million pounds.
“North of Falcon (Astoria) opens today and it seems like there might be a pretty high volume of crab there, so that could change,” Buell wrote in an email to YachatsNews.
When compared with last year, Buell said this season is shaping up to be pretty average.
“We’re hearing similar reports about the drop off,” he wrote. “It’s normal for most of the crab to be caught in the first 6-8 weeks of the season (over 80% of the season total on average), but it’s maybe happening a little sooner/faster this season.”
Retail prices
A spot check of Newport markets during the last week of January showed reasonable retail prices.
- Chelsea Rose at the dock in Newport was at $7.50 a pound for live Dungeness and $9.99 for whole-cooked, with an average weight of two pounds.
- Pacific Seafood’s The Fish Peddler on the Newport bayfront was $7.99 a pound for whole-cooked.
- McKay’s Market in Newport was $7.99 a pound for whole-cooked.
- South Beach Fish Market was $9.95 a pound live and $10.95 whole-cooked, with an average weight of two pounds.
- Garret Jaros is YachatsNews’ full-time reporter and can be reached atGJaros@YachatsNews.com