A8
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2021
Crab: Many are already looking to next season Survey: More
than 55% of county
residents have been
fully vaccinated
Continued from Page A1
One South Bend Prod-
ucts employee, who had
been picking crab meat for
the company for a long time,
decided to take a job doing
housekeeping at a hotel.
The hotel, also desperate for
employees, was off ering her
$25 an hour.
Continued from Page A1
Diffi cult calls
Consumers seem to have
taken the price increases for
Dungeness crab in stride —
much to the surprise of many
in the seafood industry. But
some North Coast restau-
rants and markets have had
to make diffi cult calls as
prices continue to rise.
In Warrenton, Malcolm
Cotte, the owner of FishStix
Seafood Market, stopped
carrying certain crab meat
options altogether in June.
He couldn’t make it balance
out. He could either sell at
a loss or charge more than
what customers were likely
willing to pay.
South Bay Wild, a restau-
rant and seafood market
in Astoria, has been buy-
ing crab meat from Born-
stein Seafoods. Owners Rob
and Tiff ani Seitz have an
established partnership with
Bornstein’s because their
commercial fi shing boat
delivers product to the pro-
cessor. They’re able to get
a slightly better price per
pound as a result, but it’s still
expensive.
Tiff ani Seitz raised the
price of South Bay’s crab
cocktail, crab cakes and
other crab dishes by 50
cents. Portions are smaller.
She hasn’t had to fi eld
many questions from cus-
tomers about these changes.
Some have already seen the
high prices for crab else-
where. F or others, it doesn’t
matter.
“If people really want it,
they’re going to pay for it,”
said Geoff Gunn, the chef
at Bridgewater Bistro in
Astoria.
For Bridgewater Bistro,
taking seafood off the menu
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
South Bay Wild is dealing with a staff shortage and expensive crab during the busy tourist season.
isn’t an option. Dungeness
crab could go away, though,
if prices continue to rise. The
crab Gunn got in last week
was $52 a pound. He can’t
sustain that.
At the same time, restau-
rants are dealing with sup-
ply and cost issues for many
products they buy.
Fryer oil went up by more
than $15 — a signifi cant
expense for a restaurant like
South Bay Wild and its pop-
ular fi sh-and-chip off erings.
Condiments like ketchup
and mayonnaise are some-
times hard to source.
Also diffi cult to get are
halibut, cod, scallops, oys-
ters, calamari, lobster tail,
lobster products in general
— “I could go on and on,”
Matlock said. “It’s pretty
much across the board.”
Ocean Beauty employ-
ees are now prepared to
off er substitutions as other
seafood comes up short, or
is not available in the por-
tions buyers are accustomed
to purchasing. Oregon
pink shrimp, for example,
is booming and readily
available.
Gunn is in contact with his
seafood provider on a daily
basis. They’ll tell him what’s
happening on the market. If
Gunn knows they’re starting
to run low on a certain prod-
uct, he’ll buy extra to bulk
up the restaurant’s reserves.
Next season
Many in the seafood and
restaurant industries are
looking to the next Dunge-
ness crab season to solve
supply issues and possibly
bring down prices .
The situation could end
up being good for commer-
cial crabbers, some theorize.
The high demand and prices
could give them more bar-
gaining power when it comes
time to negotiate a starting
price per pound with buyers
this winter.
Questions about labor
remain unanswered, howev-
er. T here is also the very big
question posed by low oxy-
gen levels measured off the
Oregon and Washington
state coasts this year.
There are fears that a “dead
zone” is forming, and form-
ing well ahead of the Pacif-
ic’s usual hypoxia season. A
low oxygen, or hypoxic zone,
can wipe out crab and bot-
tom-dwelling fi sh .
A bad hypoxic event in
2018 did not immediately
correspond to poor Dunge-
ness crab landings in the fol-
lowing seasons. Fishermen
landed more than 18 mil-
lion pounds in Oregon in the
2018-19 season. But there is
much that is unknown about
these events and their long
and short-term impacts on
the ecosystem.
For Tiff ani Seitz, the labor
shortage remains the biggest
and most immediate concern.
There is a line out the door
nearly every day South Bay
Wild is open. Restaurants
across Clatsop County have
had to cut hours because they
don’t have enough employ-
ees, driving even more peo-
ple to the places that are
open. Hiring can feel like the
housing market: If you don’t
jump at an application imme-
diately, the person will have
already moved on to another
off er. Existing employees are
exhausted.
“I can have all the prod-
uct in the world,” Seitz said,
“but if I don’t have employ-
ees or my employees are
unhappy or overworked, the
customers won’t have a good
experience.”
She thinks about visi-
tors who have had bad expe-
riences at restaurants in
Astoria recently because
of the long lines, the long
wait times and curt interac-
tions with stressed or over-
whelmed staff . She worries
they won’t come back.
the virus, questions about
how quickly the vaccines
were approved, concerns
about side eff ects and fears
linked to conspiracy theo-
ries and misinformation.
“Oregonians
who
remain unvaccinated share
the same reasons as being
the most infl uential in their
decision not to get vacci-
nated: Long- and short-term
side eff ects and the con-
cerns that the vaccine was
developed too quickly,”
Vogel said.
Public health experts say
the vaccines approved by
the Food and Drug Admin-
istration for emergency
use against COVID-19 are
safe and eff ective, particu-
larly at preventing severe
illness and death. Experts
say some side eff ects occur
after vaccination and typi-
cally last a few days, while
severe side eff ects are rare.
The survey found that
67% of respondents state-
wide had received at least
one dose of a COVID-19
vaccine, a rate similar to
what the Oregon Health
Authority was reporting at
the time.
In Clatsop County,
according to the Public
Health Department, more
than 55% of the population
has been vaccinated against
the virus.
The survey from the
Oregon Values and Beliefs
OREGON
VALUES AND
BELIEFS CENTER
The Oregon Values
and Beliefs Center, a
nonpartisan charita-
ble organization, has
partnered with Pamplin
Media Group and EO
Media Group to report
how Oregonians think
and feel about various
subjects.
The center is com-
mitted to the highest
level of public opinion
research. To obtain
that, the nonprofi t is
building the largest
online research panel of
Oregonians in history
to ensure that all voices
are represented in
discussions of public
policy in a valid and
statistically reliable way.
Selected panelists
earn points for their
participation, which can
be redeemed for cash
or donated to a charity.
To learn more, visit
oregonvbc.org
Center was conducted July
9 to July 14 among 1,464
residents. The margin of
error ranged from 1.6 per-
centage points to 2.6 per-
centage points, depending
on the response category
for any given question.
DIVE INTO
A LOWER
RATE.
Swap meet: There will be ‘something for everybody’
Continued from Page A1
“If I can see 200 people
walk through the building the
entire day, I’d feel like it was
a smashing success,” he said.
While Allan believes the
swap meet is an exciting addi-
tion to the collectible com-
munity on the North Coast ,
he anticipates drawing people
from Portland and beyond .
“This is for the local com-
munity, anywhere from Clat-
sop County. I would love for
people to come and hang out
and just check it out,” he said.
“But, because I knew more
people from Portland in that
market, I defi nitely tried to
pull some of that.
“I’ve got people coming
from Seattle to table. Hope-
fully the Pacifi c Northwest in
general starts to hear about it
and if we make this a regular
thing, it might be something
that people look forward to.”
When Allan used to visit
a comic book store in Astoria
over a decade ago, he said it
always seemed well-stocked
and popular. Whether or not
that community still exists,
he is not sure. R egardless,
he thinks the timing might
be right for attracting curious
customers.
“I think people are hoping
to have some semblance of a
summer where they get out
and get to do something,” he
said. “It was kind of a time-
and-place kind of thing. I feel
like there is this new wave of
energy in Astoria, particularly
right now, and people are just
down to try new things and
get out there and experience
things.”
The swap meet will be
selling hot dogs, chips and
soda for people to snack on
while browsing the vendors’
tables.
“Hopefully, it’s going to
be fun for the whole fam-
ily,” Allan said. “I wanted to
try to provide something for
everybody.”
From auto to home,
you can spend less on
your loans and save more
for your nest egg.
Call, visit, or log on to learn about the
many benefits of membership.
85 W. Marine Dr. Astoria
2315 N. Roosevelt Dr. Seaside
1771 SE Ensign Ln. Warrenton
www.tlcfcu.org | 866.901.3521
Federally Insured
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A swap meet for collectors is planned at the Masonic Lodge.
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