The 2012 Alaska Opilio Snow Crab season kicks off next week.
   We will be offering fresh cooked clusters throughout the�
   season, which we expect to last into April. With record
   high prices on just about any quality crab, Opilio may be a
   great alternative for those who wish to serve or offer your
   customers a great eating crab. Processed correctly, Opilio has
   a very sweet flavor and outstanding texture.

   We will be offering #1 grade clusters that are size graded to +8 ounce and larger.�
   Pack will be 25# and 40# cartons.

   First delivery is on or about January 10th, which would put deliveries to customers
   on the 12th or 13th, depending on the exact time the delivery takes place. We will
    put out a CRAB ALERT next Wednesday, January 4th with prices and order deadlines.

SEAFOOD.COM NEWS [seafoodnews.com] Dec 20, 2011

The Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, a seafood industry trade association representing nearly 70% of the Bering Sea crab harvesters, supports those senators and NOAA officials who brought increased attention to the problem of Illegal, Unreported, or Unregulated (IUU) fishing.

On Tuesday December 13, 2011 members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the Senate Oceans Caucus held a briefing to introduce S. 1980, the Pirate Fishing Elimination Act. This bill, which enjoys bipartisan support, would seek to prevent, deter, and eliminate IUU fishing through the enactment of port State measures.

These port State measures would bar pirate fishing vessels from entering ports and selling their illegal catch and would also establish mechanisms to ensure compliance. The United States, long a leader in addressing the issue of IUU, already has such measures in place. This latest development in the fight against IUU would help to “level the playing field” and make sure other Nations do their part in combating this worldwide problem.

“This is an excellent first step, but more can be done to eradicate the problem,” says Jake Jacobsen. Jacobsen, a Bering Sea crab industry veteran and head of the ICE cooperative, along with Arni Thomson of the Alaska Crab Coalition and the United Fishermen of Alaska, were the only fishermen representatives on the panel assembled to brief Senators and their staff.

The Alaska crabbers got involved in the issue after a period of extremely low crab prices in 2005 and 2006 that they felt were largely caused by a huge influx of illegal Russian king crab.

We will be offering fresh cooked Opilio Snow Crab clusters! All clusters will be graded as a #1, clean shell. Also clusters will be size graded at +8oz. per clusters.

We anticipate seeing our first deliveries beginning around January 15th-20th.

We will also be offering frozen cooked clusters, graded just like our fresh. With a large increase in quota we hope to see a little softening in pricing this year. Japan’s inventory is basically “0″, so prices may be firm at the very start, but we expect prices to be less than last year.

We should have prices for the fresh by January 2nd. Watch for updates!!

With the 2011 Alaska Red King Crab over, restaurants will soon realize that a shortage of supply for 2012 will take place. Everything we have heard is that approximately 80% of this year’s catch has or is being exported to Japan. Based on a 7,843,000 pound quota, a 64% recovery from live weight to frozen cooked clusters, which translates to about 5,000,000 pounds, less the 80% going to Japan, that leaves a balance for the domestic market and other export markets at a measly 1,000,000 pounds.

We have finished our purchases for the year and will “as always” have inventory to hopefully last us until next year. We are beginning to sense that the “shock” of high prices are starting to stabilize and buyers are now beginning to realize that there normal supplier may be short.

We can ship small quantities on a daily basis via FedEx and also larger quantities by truck. If you want to insure that you’ll be able to serve Alaska Red King Crab give us a call and will supply you with up to the minute pricing and availability.

We are shipping our last load of fresh Alaska Red King Crab today. Unfortunately due to the 47% reduction in quota and great crabbing, this year’s fishery (season) has been drastically reduced. Initial reports seem to show that approximately 75 to 80% of this year’s crab is going to Japan. We will have frozen available throughout the year.

NEXT UP! Opilio Snow Crab
The quota has been drastically increased from approximately 54,000,000 pounds to 88,000,000. Prices should come down from 2011 prices and the season should be longer, possibly into late April. We are looking into offering fresh cooked Opilio Snow Crab. Crab deliveries should begin around January 10th or thereabouts. Our plan is to pack only +8 oz. clusters or possibly even +10 oz.

After spending an average of 42 days in Dutch Harbor the past two years, Eric and I are home after spending only 8 days in Dutch. The smaller quota this season and outstanding crabbing has made this year remind of us the old “Derby Style” days when 375 boats would catch the quota in two to four days.

COMING IN JANUARY
The Opilio Snow Crab season gets into full swing beginning the first week of January. With an 88,000,000 pound quota the season will definitely stretch in late April. This will give us an opportunity to do a FRESH COOKED CLUSTER program. We anticipate that prices will probably be less than last year as well. We will also offer frozen cooked too.

FRESH FLORIDA STONE CRAB CLAWS
The season is about the same as last year. Short supplies on Colossal and other sizes available fairly regularly.

The weather the past two days has been brutal out on the crab grounds. We had anticipated the season would be over this weekend and now it looks like it’ll be Tuesday. The crab are averaging between 6.0 and 6.2 pounds for the most part. The crab is really clean and meat fill is great.

Have chartered two planes today for our fresh shipments. We will ship fresh next week weather permitting. So far we are batting 100% on getting all our fresh out on time.

Still trying to figure out what data and research they are using as everyone is on the crab. Water temperature has warmed up to temperatures four or five years ago and crab is where they were back then. It’s promising for the future. A lot of skippers are seeing male crab that is just under the legal size so next year they will be “keepers”.

Once again our partner in Dutch Harbor has done a brilliant job with our fresh crab program along with our frozen orders. We’ve always said they produce the best crab and this year is no different. We’ve also gotten a lot of support from the fleet, delivering “B&C” share crab to us.

Sales are down a bit this year due to high prices but with maybe only 1,000,000 pounds coming south, you won’t be seeing ALASKA RED KING CRAB on as many menu’s this coming year.

We are a week into the 2011 Red Crab Fishery, and the fleet is on the Crab. The Crab is clean, and Skippers are seeing great numbers in their gear. We spent some time with our friends on the F/V Arctic Sea who came in with 300k. Captain Owen had strings with 70 – 120 Legal Males per pot. It’s looking like the quota will be caught by next weekend. The plants are booked with scheduled deliveries everyday this week as everyone is on the Crab. Reports from the Fleet are that water temperatures are where they were 5 years ago unlike the abnormally cold water  they have been seeing the past 4 years.

Eric and I will be arriving into Dutch Harbor this Thuesday (Oct. 20th) for the first deliver of the regular Red King Crab season. We will begin shipping fresh on Monday, Oct. 24th and will continue to ship three days a week until the season closes.

High Japanese prices, strong demand in Japan, the weak U.S. dollar (duh) and the 47% reduction has put Red King Crab prices at record highs. We expect the season to close around the first week of November and the only thing that could extend the season is really bad weather or catch rate, which we don’t expect to happen.

We will be emailing our CRAB ALERT this Wednesday with prices, pack sizes and ordering deadlines.

If you are interested and looking for wholesale quantities and are new to us click onto the Wholesale Crab Alert icon to the right and sign up.

For those looking for smaller gift packs of fresh click onto the Crab Club icon just below the Crab Alert icon.

Alaska Fish & Game announced this year’s Red King Crab quota on Monday (Oct. 3rd). As expected the quota has been drastically reduced by a whopping  47%.

In 2010 the total quota was 14,800,000 pounds and this upcoming season’s quota is 7,834,000 pounds. Recovery from live weight to cooked clusters is .635%, which translates this year to 4,975,000 pounds of clusters.

Japan will be very agressive this year, most likely taking around 3,200,000 pounds leaving a balance of about 1,700,000 for other export markets and the U.S. domestic market. Supplies should be extremely tight.

No relief is in sight over the next 4 to 7 years, so expect quota’s to continue to be reduced or even worse yet a complete closure within the next couple of years.