Domoic acid, price-haggling, and potential whale entanglement held up the Dungeness crab fishing up and down the West Coast this winter, further complicating a fishery already turned upside down by the pandemic.
Fishermen usually drop their pots from California to Washington in December, but did not start until January or February this season, depending on the state.
According to seafood distributor Tradex Food Inc, winter supply was met with existing freezer inventories of Dungeness, along with strong sales of king crab and snow crab.
Lori Steele, the executive director of the West Coast Seafood Processors Association (WCPSA), confirmed the processors her organization represents have largely moved freezer stocks out. Steele cited this as a positive – the energy to maintain freezer stocks is expensive and excess product drags prices down – but said it does not tell the whole story.
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