Alaska’s Dungeness crab prices double, with halibut and black cod also on the rise

Catches for Dungeness crab in Southeast Alaska are going slow so far for 163 boats, but prices of USD 4.20 (EUR 3.55) per pound are more than double last year’s number. The crab fishery will run through mid-August and reopen in October.

Kodiak crabbers were getting USD 4.25 (EUR 3.60) for their Dungeness, also more than double.

Norton Sound opened for king crab on 15 June with a 290,000-pound catch limit. Concerns over the depleted stock resulted in no buyers and only one participant, who is selling crab locally.

Prince William Sound’s pot shrimp fishery remains open until mid-September with a catch limit of 70,000 pounds. A lingcod fishery opened in the sound on 1 July for a catch of nearly 33,000 pounds.

Ling cod also opened at Cook Inlet with a 52,500-pound catch limit. The Inlet also opened on 1 July for rockfish, with a 150,000-pound harvest.

Cook Inlet also has a harvest for kelp washed up on beaches set at 86,000 pounds.

A scallop fishery opened on 1 July from Yakutat to the Bering Sea, with a harvest of 345,000 pounds of shucked meats.

Alaska’s halibut catch was nearing 7.8 million pounds out of a nearly 19-million-pound catch limit. Continuing demand for fresh fish has kept prices well over USD 5.75 (EUR 4.87) a pound at most ports, reaching USD 7.50 (EUR 6.35) across the board in Homer, Alaska.

Prices for sablefish (blackcod) also were on the rise in five weight categories. The weekly Fish Ticket by Alaska Boats and Permits showed prices ranging from USD 1.10 (EUR 0.93) for 2-pounders to USD 6.25 (EUR 5.29) a pound for 7-ups. Sablefish catches were approaching 27 million pounds out of a 43.4-million-pound quota.

Fishing for pollock, cod, flounders, and other groundfish also continues throughout the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea.

Reporting by Laine Welch

Photo courtesy of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute