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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 2022
Crabbers haul a bounty off Washington coast
By HAL BERNTON
Seattle Times
Some 60 vessels in Washington’s ocean-
going crab fl eet worked through a stormy
December to bring in more than 4.69 million
pounds of Dungeness in a strong start to the
annual harvest.
For fi shers, processors and retailers, this is a
welcome change from the past six years when
the season hasn’t started until Dec. 31 or later
due to the lack of meat in the crabs or the pres-
ence of domoic acid, a marine biotoxin.
The Dungeness crab, as well as shrimp
and razor clams, have benefi ted from
improved ocean conditions of the North-
west coasts with strong cold-water upwell-
ings of the past year bringing nutrients and
helping to strengthen the base of the marine
food web.
“It’s an exciting time to be a shellfi sh
biologist with all these species doing well,”
said Daniel Ayres, coastal shellfi sh manager
for the Washington Department of Fish and
Wildlife. “It’s fun for a change.”
The ocean harvest has unfolded in a
stretch of coastal waters from Klipsan Beach
south to the Columbia River. Catches, as is
typical, were strongest during the fi rst few
days after the Dec. 1 opening, and then
dropped off . Fishers also have had to endure
some tough, chilly weather during the fi nal
weeks of 2021.
“We’re all from Alaska so it seems pretty
normal to us,” said Daniel Crome, who was
raised in Petersburg, Alaska, and fi shes out of
Westport with a fi ve-person crew that — as
the catch rates dropped off — was cut to four.
Back at the docks, these Dungeness have
fetched $4.75 a pound or more. For crabbers,
this continues an upward trend in prices from
a half decade ago, when the fi rst month’s
catch brought an average of less than $2.90 a
pound, according to state Department of Fish
and Wildlife statistics.
Dungeness also are being caught in tribal
harvests, as well as by commercial crabbers
in Puget Sound, Oregon and British Colum-
bia, Canada. On Tuesday , a larger swath of
the Washington coastal waters will open for
Dungeness and bring more commercial boats
into the fi shery, which retains males that must
meet a minimum length.
This will expand supplies in North-
west markets for those craving fresh-caught
Dungeness to help usher in what will hope-
fully be a healthier year. In December, retail
prices varied.
In the week before Christmas, a Seattle
Safeway on First Avenue West off ered the
whole cooked Dungeness for a sale price
of $7.99 a pound, discounted from $14.99 a
pound.
Alan Berner/Seattle Times
Cooked, whole Dungeness crabs from British Columbia are selling for $24.50 a pound at Pure Food Fish Market in the Pike Place Market.
DUNGENESS ALSO ARE BEING CAUGHT IN TRIBAL
HARVESTS, AS WELL AS BY COMMERCIAL CRABBERS
IN PUGET SOUND, OREGON AND BRITISH COLUMBIA,
CANADA. ON TUESDAY , A LARGER SWATH OF THE
WASHINGTON COASTAL WATERS WILL OPEN FOR
DUNGENESS AND BRING MORE COMMERCIAL BOATS
INTO THE FISHERY, WHICH RETAINS MALES THAT
MUST MEET A MINIMUM LENGTH.
At Pure Food Fish in the Pike Place
Market, Dungeness crab last week sold for
$24.50 a pound, which can push the price of
a whole crab past $40.
Neal Brebner, Pure Food’s manager, said
that the December fresh crab have been
a welcome change from years past when
Pure Food has only had frozen crab to off er
customers.
“They are beautiful, nice and full, and
we are buying them from wherever we can
get them,” said Brebner, who expects retail
prices will dip in January as supplies expand.
The Dungeness harvest will continue deep
into 2022 but catches decline sharply later in
the season, and many crabbers will move on
to other harvests.
In Washington, Dungeness remain a pil-
lar of the seafood industry. From 2014 to
2019, coast-caught Dungeness was worth an
annual average of $45 million, according to
the state Department of Fish and Wildlife . In
the 2017 to 2018 season, Puget Sound com-
mercial Dungeness crabbers’ catch was val-
ued at $13 million.
The Dungeness also are important to
Washington tribes. They have treaty rights
affi rmed by court decisions to 50% of the
harvestable shellfi sh in their usual and accus-
tomed fi shing grounds that encompass about
half of the Washington coastline. State
Department of Fish and Wildlife manages
the commercial and recreational harvests in
cooperation with tribal harvest offi cials.
In recent years, Pacifi c Northwest Dunge-
ness sales have been buoyed by demand
from China and other Asian markets. This
year, Asia sales have been more diffi cult due
to COVID-19 restrictions and delays in over-
seas shipping amid clogged ports and con-
tainer shortages.
“Most everything is going into domestic
markets,” said Mike Cornman, president of
Westport Seafoods, who operates a crab pro-
cessing plant employing 40 people.
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