Fish Factor/Laine Welch

October 3,  2008

An eager market will be competing for reduced supplies of king crab this winter and that is likely to boost prices for fishermen.

A fleet of about 86 boats is on its way to the Bering Sea this week for the October 15 start of king and Tanner crab fisheries. For Alaska’s largest king crab fishery at Bristol Bay, crabbers will drop pots for a total catch of 20.36 million pounds of red king crab, compared to 20.38 million pounds last year. Ten percent comes off the top for the CDQ (Community Development Quota) allocation, designed to help the economies of remote Western Alaska communities that border the Bering Sea.

While U.S. king crab buyers might be tightening their belts due to the sluggish economy, that’s not the case for Alaska’s #1 customer: Japan. According to market analyst Ken Talley of Seafood Trend, demand for Alaska king crab is strong in Japan and that should be reflected in higher prices. Imports of frozen crab into Japan through June dropped 27% from a year ago, and average wholesale prices increased by 41.5% on a per-pound basis.

Retail sales are key to the king crab market in the U.S. and reduced supplies have pushed up wholesale prices by nearly 40% for imported product (primarily from Russia). Talley said some major U.S. buyers may forego king crab until after the prime holiday sales season when prices may soften.

Alaska crabbers have proposed an opening price of $5.15/lb for red king crab, according to market expert John Sackton of Seafood.com. That compares to of $4.35/lb last year.   Fishermen receive a base price and then a final adjustment after the crab is sold.

Alaska crabbers compete with Russia and Norway in world markets, and fishermen there also are negotiating for higher prices this year.

In other crab news, the catch quota for Bering Sea snow crab (opilio Tanner) is reduced by 7% to 58.5 million pounds, compared to 63 million pounds last season. The harvest for bairdi Tanners, the larger cousin of snow crab, also decreased to 4.3 million pounds, a reduction of 23%. There will again be no fisheries for king crab at the Pribilofs and at St. Matthew Island, although blue king crab stocks there are on a slow but steady rebound.

Celebrate Seafood Month!  October is National Seafood Month – a distinction proclaimed by Congress a quarter century ago to recognize one of our nation’s oldest industries. Government figures show that nationwide, the seafood industry provides more than 250,000 jobs and contributes $60 billion to the U.S. economy each year. Alaska deserves special merit during Seafood Month, as it produces over half of our nation’s seafood – more than all the other states combined. For 19 years in a row, Dutch harbor has ranked as the nation’s number one port for seafood landings.  The seafood industry is Alaska ’s number one private employer. It ranks second only to Big Oil for the tax dollars it pumps into state coffers.

More fish facts:  Americans eat just over 16 pounds of seafood per person each year. (Compared to 63 pounds of beef.)  America’s seafood favorites have remained largely the same for five years:  shrimp, canned tuna, salmon, pollock and tilapia. The nation’s seafood appetite is being fed mostly by foreign imports– nearly 80 percent of all fish and shellfish eaten in the U.S. comes from other countries.  

Speaking of other countries -- that 16 pounds of seafood that Americans eat pales when compared to other parts of the world.  The Japanese, for example, eat 146 pounds of seafood per person each year. U.N. figures show that in Greenland, it’s 186 pounds and 200 pounds per person in Iceland. The country with the lowest per capita seafood consumption is Afghanistan at zero. 

And where in the world do people eat the most fish? The South Pacific islands of Tokelau, where each person eats more than 440 pounds of seafood every year.

Expo goes Green!  The first Green Industrial Business and Career Expo is set for October 10 at the Puget Sound Industrial Excellence Center. Generating electricity from geothermal energy is a main topic and will include a presentation by Bernie Karl of the Chena Hot Springs Resort. The Expo also includes workshops where industrial firms can learn about energy efficiency, how to reduce emissions, and "green collar" jobs of the future.  Sponsors include the Seattle Office of Economic Development, Seattle Community College District, the National Wildlife Federation and the Manufacturing Industrial Council of Seattle. www.nwgreenexpo.org .
Pacific Marine Expo will take place Nov. 20-22 at the Qwest Center in Seattle. The event features four tracks: safety, workboat, fisheries/fisheries business and charter boats. Keynote speaker is Dr. Jim Balsiger, NOAA Fisheries director, who will discuss Marine Fisheries in Transition. www.pacificmarineexpo.com .

See how wind can power fishing boats at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mFXxroPmqg  

September 26,  2008

More Alaska fishermen are proving that it pays to work together to enhance and promote their own seafood harvests.

In 2005 the state legislature approved a unique concept that allows fishermen in 12 distinct areas to form Regional Seafood Development Associations, and vote to fund them through a self-tax on their catches. The money is collected as a deduction off the fish tickets during a fishery and goes to the Dept. of Revenue. It is then appropriated back to the RSDA’s prior to the next fishing season. Fishermen can use the money for any projects they choose.

Salmon fishermen in two regions have embraced the concept so far – Bristol Bay and Copper River/Prince William Sound.  Southeast and Aleutian Islands harvesters have organized an RSDA and are set to vote on a tax assessment over the winter.  

Not surprisingly, Copper River/PWS fishermen were the first to form an RSDA as soon as the program was approved. A one percent tax paid by each of the region’s 540 member drift gillnet fleet yields up to $350,000 each year. The group has used the money to expand markets beyond the region’s summer fisheries, including west and east coast advertising promotions of fall coho salmon.

The RSDA hosted a media tour of the Copper River fishery and Cordova community this summer, said executive director Beth Poole. The group also has developed a ‘best practices’ quality and handling guide, and aims to get an ice barge to service more fishing regions.

“For a few years we’ve been working on getting an ice facility in Prince William Sound for some of the lesser known runs,” Poole said.

The region’s 33 set netters will vote this winter on a self-tax and joining the RSDA, she added.  (www.copperrivermarketing.org)

Bristol Bay fishermen comprise the biggest RSDA with its 1,800 member drift gillnet fleet. The group has amassed nearly $2 million from its one percent tax on 2006 and 2007 catches, and projects to add an additional $1.4 million from the 2008 salmon season.

“The primary goal is to improve revenues for Bay fishermen,” said RSDA director Bob Waldrop. “The fastest way to get to do that is through improved quality. We won’t spend one penny on marketing efforts until we do that.”

To boost quality, the RSDA put more than half of its cash into chilling projects throughout Bristol Bay. Waldrop said two million pounds of ice was put into boat holds this summer, enough to chill up to 8 million pounds of fish so far.

“Multiply that by 10 cents per pound as a chilling bonus and you’ve got a significant amount of money in the checkbooks of the fishermen, which normally wouldn’t have been there,” Waldrop said.   

Waldrop said it is gratifying to see fishermen working together in such a well organized way. The Bristol Bay group is hoping that the region’s set netters will also vote to join the RSDA, which would push its membership to 3,000 salmon permit holders.

“The biggest challenge is selecting amongst all the opportunities available to us. There’s just so much to do and so many different ways to apply ourselves,” Waldrop said. “It’s not to say there aren’t some disagreements about ideas, but there is a great deal of unanimity about the sense of self empowerment that this represents – that we can make a difference. And we are.”  

Fishermen in Southeast Alaska are trying again to launch a RSDA after narrowly voting down a self-tax in 2006. The initial effort was designed to include more than 60 fisheries; this time the attempt is being made on a smaller scale by the 486 member salmon driftnet fleet.

“I’ve come full circle because there are so many more things you can do with an RSDA than we truly understood with the first vote,” said Chris Knight of Juneau, an interim board member who voted against the first RSDA.

Knight said a primary focus for many Southeast communities is infrastructure developments.  

“In Juneau, for example, fisheries-related infrastructure is almost nil. We’ve got a couple of knuckle cranes on a dock, and that’s about it. There’s no loading facilities, no cold storage, there’s zero facilities for any fishermen  to really do anything on their own,” Knight said. “It’s important that everyone works in conjunction with our two local processors, but guys need to have some independence so they can market their own stuff or increase the value of their other fisheries. Tons of guys would like to ship fish out of Ketchikan or different places and they don’t have the facilities to do that. Things like that could come out of this RSDA.”

Knight said a survey indicated that gillnetters would be likely to vote for a one-half percent tax to fund an RSDA, likely called Rainforest Wild. The interim board has scheduled meetings over the next two months to educate fishermen and ready them for a vote.

“I am optimistic that we could actually build some infrastructure that would provide some real benefits for fishermen,” he said. We don’t have the option now.”

Aleutian Islands fishermen are also planning to vote this winter on forming a RSDA, and funding it with a half percent self tax. (www.rainforestwild.org)

About 50 fishermen from Sand Point, King Cove, Cold Bay, Nelson Lagoon, False Pass and Akutan created an “Aleutia” brand five years ago. They adhere to strict quality and handling procedures, and have successfully developed niche markets for Aleutia sockeye and king salmon.

“All the fish are live bled on the boat and put on slush ice. The fishermen are very proud of the product they are producing,” said Aleutia operations manager Tiffany Jackson.

Marketing will be Aleutia’s main focus, along with overcoming transportation hurdles.     

“The Aleutia brand is well known on the East coast and it’s in high demand. But the problem right now is how much it costs to get the fish from Alaska to New York,” Jackson said.

Getting the fish to Anchorage is the most costly leg of the journey.

“It costs us 80 cents to $1.00 a pound to get it to Anchorage, depending on which airline can get it out of Sand Point. If we’re sending frozen product to Seattle, that’s a different story – we can barge it,” Jackson said.   (www.aleutia.org)

Energy tips and loans - Fishermen are being asked to share their stories and energy saving tips in a survey by Alaska Sea Grant and United Fishermen of Alaska. Respond by October 10; results will be posted in mid-October. The survey is easy and anonymous. Find it at http://www.surveymonkey.com/seagrantfuel  .

Applications are now being accepted for low interest loans to help fishermen replace or retool their engines to boost energy efficiency. Get more information from the state Commerce Department’s Division of Investments or call Geoff Whistler at 800-478-5626.