Dungeness crab season gets off to positive start

Dec. 10—Oregon's commercial Dungeness crab fishery opened on the traditional Dec. 1 start date for the first time in years with one of the highest starting prices per pound for fishermen on record.

But it could be a while before consumers are able to buy exactly what they want as processors restock depleted freezers and struggle to find workers.

Malcolm Cotte, the owner of Fishstix seafood market in Warrenton, is able to stock whole cooked crab and crab meat again, though both cost a little more than people are used to paying. He doesn't have any fancy legs and some other products, but it's an improvement from this summer, when he had to stop carrying a wide variety of crab options because of rising costs and low availability.

Restaurants, markets and seafood distributors were all short on Dungeness crab this summer due to a combination of factors, including sudden, increased demand after a lull caused by the coronavirus pandemic, shifting markets, a relatively lower yield season, not enough crab in storage and a lack of workers to process the catch. Prices soared.

Many people looked to the 2021-22 season to restore some degree of balance.

Heading into week two of the new season, it is still too early to say if equilibrium will be achieved, but catches are strong. State fishery managers recorded 3.9 million pounds landed in Oregon as of Thursday. And the crab, as Cotte can attest, is beautiful and full.

Cotte has heard some confusion from buyers about why they can't get exactly what they want now that the season has opened. They see pictures on social media of crab landings at local ports: Boats coming in, the decks loaded with crab.

However, processors up and down the Oregon Coast continue to report a shortage of workers. Boats have also struggled to find crew. The shortages have slowed what has otherwise been a fantastic start to the season, said Tim Novotny, spokesman for the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission.

"But," Novotny cautioned, "it's week one."

The industry was almost starting from scratch this season.

"Even in the best of circumstances, it might have taken a while to get crab somewhere," Novotny said.

Everything else appears to have fallen into place.

Some in the industry theorized the scarcity of crab last season could put fishermen in a strong position to negotiate a good starting price per pound this season.

Last season, already delayed by marine toxins and low meat fill results, fishermen fought for a starting price of around $3 per pound. This season, buyers arrived at the bargaining table with offers between $4.75 and $5 per pound — the highest opening price per pound on record for the fishery, according to the state.

The fishery had already received an encouraging go-ahead from the state in November after preseason testing showed high meat yield in crabs across the region and the marine toxin domoic acid was nowhere to be seen.

Even a feared ocean "dead zone" appears to have cleared for now. Over the summer, researchers warned of an extended season of low-oxygen levels in waters off Oregon and Washington state. Such zones can be deadly for crab.

The Pacific Northwest has regularly experienced these hypoxia seasons for two decades. But the event that began in the spring hit earlier and lasted far longer than any other hypoxic event recorded on the West Coast in the last 35 years. Sensors were still picking up low-oxygen levels into October.

Winter storms seemed to have helped clear the water for now.

"We get to take a breather until the spring when the risk of hypoxia starts up again," said Francis Chan, a marine ecologist with Oregon State University.

Chan distributed several dozen dissolved oxygen sensors to commercial crab fishermen last year to expand tracking of low oxygen areas. He expects to deploy these sensors again closer to spring.