West Coast crabbers’ strike holds firm; little crab in stores

A week-old strike by West Coast crabbers was still holding Wednesday despite reports of some restlessness in Washington state, where the first opportunity of the season to set gear outside the northernmost ports has finally arrived with nothing to do about it but hope for a settlement on price some time soon.

Fishermen from three states reaffirmed their commitment to the cause during coast-wide conference calls Tuesday and again Wednesday, demonstrating solidarity more resolute than any since the strike began, according to Scott Creps, president of the Humboldt Fishermen’s Marketing Association, which initiated the strike.

But there remains some lingering concern that patience could wear thin in areas where crabbers haven’t had a chance yet to drop their pots since last year, and some may grow sufficiently eager to launch their seasons that they’ll settle for a lower price than others are willing to accept.

“It’s always a question of, ‘Can you keep the port together?’ ” said veteran crabber David Bitts, a prominent McKinleyville fisherman and longtime board member for the Humboldt fishermen’s association.

The issue is complicated because not all crabbers are members of the local marketing groups that represent fishermen collaboratively and negotiate price in key ports up and down the West Coast, Bitts said.

“Legally, we can’t have substantive conversations about price with people who are not association members, so how they are influenced is a very delicate subject,” he said.

There also are structural irregularities and market forces at play that have suppressed the upward price growth of a normal season, including China’s rejection of crab imports from the West Coast for much of December and a piecemeal opening of the fishery that kept the crab supply at a constant rate, industry representatives said.

Add to that a market demand that “really drops off a cliff” after the New Year’s holiday each year, and the scene is one “that’s rough for everybody,” said Mike Lucas, president of North Coast Fisheries, a key fish-processing company and supplier to North Bay markets.

Even so, crabbers all along the coast agreed Wednesday to keep their boats at dock another day, and even tribal members in the Pacific Northwest, whose fisheries are governed differently from other sectors in the tri-state area, have agreed to come ashore after months of fishing in solidarity with the commercial fleet, Creps and Lorne Edwards, president of the Bodega Bay fishermen’s marketing group, said.

The strike deprived some consumers of a New Year’s tradition and has reduced foot traffic and sales at local markets.

“We made it through New Year’s Eve in all locations,” said Todd Davis, meat and seafood manager at Oliver’s Markets, which has four Sonoma County stores. “But then we only had crab in two locations on New Year’s Day and then nothing since Monday,” and customers are still inquiring.

At North Coast Fisheries, Lucas said he was expecting a delivery of tribal crab on Thursday.

“So, we’re getting enough crab to keep our customers with some crab, but it’s not what we’d like to have,” he said.

The Humboldt Fishermen’s Marketing Association announced its strike early last week after a key wholesaler dropped its price for Dungeness crab from $3 a pound to $2.75, effectively resetting the price for anyone landing crab on the West Coast, fishermen said.

Crabbers from what are said to be more than 1,000 vessels fishing along the West Coast docked their boats in solidarity and are holding out for the $3-a-pound price that had been in place since the Dungeness crab fishery began to open six weeks ago.

Though a matter of only a quarter per pound, the difference in price is worth thousands of dollars for each commercial vessel and millions of dollars for the fleet, crabbers said.

“If you look at the season coast-wide that remains in front of us, it’s probably worth about 10 million bucks,” mostly in Oregon and Washington, whose fisheries opened most recently, Bitts said.

In addition, a look back at prices historically suggests that a setback now would bode poorly for next season, he and others said.

“We’re trying to make a statement for our future,” Edwards said.

But he and others described the strike as “day to day” at this point, dependent in part on meetings this week to explore the potential for an agreement that might get the fleet back on the water. But Edwards said, “It’s our intention that we’re not going to consider anything less than $3.”

The lingering strike is just the latest in a series of disruptions in the West Coast crab fishery, where extended port closures over the past 14 months have caused significant financial hardship and challenged fundamental expectations in an industry that accounted for recent annual landings worth more than $60 million in California alone.

Persistently elevated concentrations of a naturally occurring, algae-related toxin delayed the 2015-16 California season by an unprecedented 4½ months. Besides the fishermen dependent on the catch for a large portion of their annual income, suppliers, fish processors and retailers took a hit, as did consumers, who were deprived of fresh crab during the holiday period from Thanksgiving to Christmas and New Year’s, when the bulk of the crustaceans are caught and eaten each year.

Isolated samples with excessive levels of the neurotoxin, Domoic acid, threw this year into disorder as well, prompting staggered season starts that opened the coast to crabbing on a piecemeal basis, beginning with the area south of Point Reyes. The result was derby-style fishing in which vessels from around the coast crammed into small sections of coastline for as long as the crabs were abundant before moving onto the next area to open.

All of California is now open, save for a stretch of about 50 miles between Shelter Cove and the Ten Mile River north of Fort Bragg. Oregon and parts of Washington opened in late December, with the northern half of Washington, where pots could be set for the pre-soak beginning Wednesday, opens officially on Saturday.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.