Although the fishery opens by regulation Oct. 15, most crabbers usually wait until mid-January to begin dropping pots. The snow crab catch quota was boosted 64 percent this season to nearly 80 million pounds. Boats left the dock without settling on a price, and the increased supply is depressing the market.
"The problem we have in the snow crab market is that before the catch share program began in 2005, the fishery started on the 15th of January, so that is when the market formed, and negotiations were typically done about a week before. Although the fishery has been starting earlier and earlier, negotiations are still taking place at the traditional time period.
"There's negotiations taking place between the packers and the Japanese and domestic buyers as we speak," said Jake Jacobsen, director of the Inter-Cooperative Exchange, which represents a majority of the crab fleet.
There also is quite a bit of Canadian snow crab in freezers that buyers are trying to sell before that fishery begins in April. Jacobsen said it all adds up to lower crab prices.
"We're looking at a considerable reduction from (last year's average of $2.41 a pound)," Jacobsen said. The fishery last year produced 54 million pounds, valued at more than $120 million at the docks. The largest Alaska snow crab harvest was 252.1 million pounds in 1998.
The fishery ends by regulation in mid-May.
Beating bycatch
Bycatch in fisheries is not only bad for the resources, it's bad for business. For decades fishermen have sought to avoid the hassles of unwanted catches that slow their operations. A case in point: West Coast shrimpers trying to avoid Pacific whiting.
"These fishermen designed excluder devices 50 years ago in trawl nets to lower their sorting costs. So fishermen have been grappling with this for a long time, and it's not just the result of regulations," said Gil Sylvia, a marine resource economist at Oregon State University's Marine Experimental Station at Newport.
Sylvia says changes need to be made jointly by policymakers and industry stakeholders that create incentives to avoid bycatch.
"The solution is to co-develop rights-based systems, which is where we are heading on the West Coast, and market-based performance standards that create the long-term rewards for industry to discover incentives," Sylvia told KDLG radio in Dillingham. "So who is going to create and implement the bycatch and discard solutions that are going to lower costs and increase profits for industry and reward the best fishermen. That is the issue."
Another case in point: The fleet of 98 Bering Sea shore-based pollock boats, fishing in six cooperatives, agreed on incentive plans to keep king salmon bycatch below a 60,000-fish cap set by fishery managers. Incentives include rewards and penalties for individual vessels, which can also earn salmon savings credits.
"How you earn those credits is for every three fish below the base cap that a vessel avoided in a year, it would earn a savings credit. Those credits would be saved in an account and last over a five-year period," explained John Gruver, inter-co-op manager of United Catcher Boats, a trawl trade group.
The Bering Sea fleet also relies on a website that lets it track catch data quickly.
"We have a secure website that each co-op can go to and make transfers, and see how all their vessels stand, and check on other co-ops, and more importantly, check on themselves," Gruver added.
NOAA Fisheries data show that king salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery last year totaled 25,400 fish. That compares with 121,000 taken as bycatch five years ago.
Smart Gear winners
Creating fishing gear that prevents bycatch is the impetus behind the international Smart Gear competition, sponsored bi-annually by the World Wildlife Fund.
The 2011 winner of both the $50,000 grand prize and a special $7,500 "tuna prize" was the captain of a Japanese tuna vessel for his Yamazaki Double-Weight Branchline. The gear works by increasing the sink rate of fishing gear, making it more difficult for seabirds to chase baited hooks. Used in conjunction with other devices it can reduce seabird mortality by almost 90 percent.
Two runners-up, each receiving $10,000, include the SeaQualizer, designed to reduce fish mortality in the recreational fishing industry, and the Turtle Lights for Gillnets that reduced sea turtle interactions up to 60 percent without affecting target catch rates or catch value. www.smartgear.org
Chile, exchange rates change markets
Recent high prices for Alaska seafood have been driven by a weak U.S. dollar prompting stronger demand by foreign customers. That may be changing, cautions market expert John Sackton, and the strengthening of the dollar could be a wild card in U.S. seafood prices this year. Sackton points to Bloomberg's index of the U.S. dollar against six major currencies that clearly shows a strengthening trend.
"This could have a big impact on seafood prices, as it would make the U.S. market more attractive for exporters, and potentially lead to more supply," Sackton said. "If the Japanese yen weakens and the dollar strengthens, it could have an unexpected impact on species such as snow crab. This is now a new risk factor that has to be taken into account." (Japan is Alaska's No. 1 seafood customer.)
For salmon, supplies in Japan switched from a shortage to an excess last year, Sackton said. One reason: Chile.
Japan's salmon imports saw remarkable growth last year because of coho shipments from Chile. At the same time, the import of North American salmon, primarily sockeyes, weakened because of more sockeyes from Russia, and salmon fillets from Chile, according to industry reports from Japan. In late 2011, the price of frozen salmon in Japan dropped in anticipation of a rapid increase of Chilean coho supplies early this year.
Laine Welch is a Kodiak-based fisheries journalist. Her Fish Radio programs can be heard on stations around the state. This material is protected by copyright. For information on reprinting, contact msfish@alaska.com.
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