Thanksgiving. Christmas. And now New Year’s Eve.
Bay Area households will again miss out on Dungeness crab for a major holiday as local fleets continue negotiating for higher wholesale prices. The commercial Dungeness crab season was set to begin on Dec. 23, but local fleets chose not to work the waters because they said the wholesale prices they were being offered weren’t enough to justify them spending money on fuel, insurance, bait and boat maintenance.
For more than a decade, wholesale prices for Dungness crab have hovered at around $2.50 to $3.25 per pound. Pacific Seafood, one of the West Coast’s largest wholesale buyers of Dungeness crab, offered boats $2.25 per pound just before Christmas, when the commercial season was due to start after more than a monthlong delay to protect endangered whales in fishing zones. San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association President John Barnett said crabbers in the region want to see the price closer to $3.30.
The work stoppage isn’t just happening among San Francisco fishers. Most commercial fishermen along the coast from Monterey up to Bodega Bay are planning only to start working once the price negotiations are settled, said Mike Conroy, president of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations.
Conroy said the negotiations were still “about 50 to 80 cents” apart on pricing as of Tuesday evening. Both Conroy and Barnett said the negotiations look as though they could last through New Year’s Day.
“It’s their livelihoods,” Conroy said of fishers demanding better wholesale prices. “They want to find something that works and makes sense for them.”
While Pacific Seafood has been mentioned by multiple members of the Northern California fishing industry as a significant player in the ongoing negotiations, the company sent a statement to The Chronicle last week downplaying its role in the process.
“The notion that Pacific Seafood is holding up the Dungeness season is absurd,” Jon Steinman, Vice President of Processing for Pacific Seafood, said in the statement. “We have to do the best we can for our customers, our fishermen and our team members who are counting on us to run a good business and be here for this season and years to come.”
Negotiations between wholesale buyers and fishers happens nearly every year, but local fishers say the stakes are higher due to a number of recent delays and financial setbacks, including the 2015-2016 season being delayed due to the presence of domoic acid in crabs, which is a neurotoxin poisonous to humans; another delay last year due to migrating whales; a fire at Fisherman’s Wharf earlier this year; and this year’s delay to the commercial season again due to migrating whales.
Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jphillips@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @JustMrPhillips
The Link LonkDecember 31, 2020 at 02:16AM
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No fresh Dungeness crab for New Year’s Eve as Bay Area fleets push for better prices - San Francisco Chronicle
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