Dear Crab-Crazed Customers,
Here They Are!!!
This past October 1st our tribal and state-licensed friends kicked off another regular Dungeness crab season. The tribes fished through October 8th, then pulled off the water, while the state fleet will keep going for another couple of weeks. Waterfronts in Bellingham, Anacortes, Port Angeles and Blaine are thumping and bumping, and millions of dollars are changing hands. As usual for this time of year, we are seeing the nicest, largest, fattest crab and the lowest pricing of the season. This years' abundant sunshine has triggered a boom throughout the food chain here. The crab, and by extension, you, are reaping the benefits of those glorious sunny days. Coastal crabbing will begin opening in about a month, Puget Sound crab catches will taper off and pricing will rise towards the holiday season. Like everything else in our blessed waters, Puget Sound crab are something special. They grow and play in some of the most dynamic waters in the world, massive tidal exchanges coupled with the warmth, richness and biological productivity of all the little bays around the region. Our inside-waters crab are fatter, tastier and more vigorous than other populations of Dungeness. Chinese buyers have become the largest buyers of local crab--most restaurant crab consumed in the Seattle market is coastal crab, silently swapped out for our superior animals. These few weeks in mid-fall are the best time to showcase Puget Sound Crab.
State of the Resource.
Where the Magic Happens
Years back the Puget Sound crab fishery was a biological backwater and economic afterthought, a minor detail compared to the then-mighty salmon fishery. The long-term average catches generally swung between 2-3 million pounds per year. Sport fishers took roughly 1 million of these pounds, with the balance caught by state licensed commercial crabbers. Prices were fairly low, and there was not much of a differentiation in the market between Coastal and inside crab. Beginning in the early nineties a series of biological, management and economic changes flipped everything around to where now, Puget Sound Crab is the largest wild fishery by value in the inside waters. First to change was a series of WDFW salmon management changes that had a disastrous impact on Puget Sound Coho and King salmon stocks. Following this, crab catches began to steadily ratchet upwards, by 250,000-500,000# per year. Next was the Rafeedie Decision in 1995. This decision extended the principle of 50% resource sharing between state and tribal fleets from salmon to all marine resources, including crab. Tribal catches of crab exploded from a few hundred thousand pound in 1994 to over 2 million pounds in 1995--contributing to an overall catch of over six million pounds--twice the long-term average. Since then the resource has gone from strength to strength. Last year total Puget Sound harvest was over 11 million pounds and this year looks to be better yet. The other big changes are that WDFW has been steadily transferring crab quota from the commercial fleet to recreational users and, beginning in the mid-2000's, Chinese demand began driving the price ever upward. Last years' catch was worth upwards of 40 million dollars, not counting sport catches. Salmon catches and pricing has crashed over this period. For Puget Sound Fisher-Folk, Crab is now King. So boomtimes for our tribal friends, and even for the state licensed fishers. Despite losing half the resource to the tribes, then half again to the sports, state commercial catches, in pounds are twice what they were just 20 years ago and income to the fleet is up 8-fold in that time. State crab permits have risen in value from $5000 in 1995 to $150,000 today.
It's not just a White Man's game anymore.
Primary Production Will Tell
Humans generally target mid-upper level representatives of the marine foodchain. Here in Washington we eat Shrimp, Crab, Salmon, Shellfish, Halibut, various other Bottomfish, and once in a while, a few Smelt or Herring. We tend to track abundance in these species as if they are indicators of overall biological health or productivity. But the drivers of all this, the phytoplankton that feast on sunlight and dissolved nutrients, spring eternal. A terrific example of this is the Newfoundland Cod Fishery. Everybody knows the story of the Cod Collapse. But a much less-told tale is that Snow Crab and Lobster boomed with the cod gone. The principle is simple--primary productivity will burn on and something, anything, will convert it to increasingly complex, and tasty, life forms. So ups and downs in one species or another are a guaranteed windfall for something else. Primary production is not only unstoppable, it is actually increasing these days as higher atmospheric carbon levels make for more plant food. Add in a string of sunny summers as we have been having and the sky's the limit. Here at Jones Ranch Shellfish Division, we see and feel the ups and downs of primary production in how the oysters grow. We see a huge difference in oyster growth between sunny and overcast years. Again, these past year have been phenomenal. Another marker of the incredible productivity of our waters is the biomass of pink scallops and other filter feeders, including a massive population of geoducks, at low depths. Literally hundreds of millions or billions of pounds of hungry bivalves haunt the floors of Puget Sound. Their only diet is dormant, or cystic phytoplankton. So, after everything up top gets done feeding, there is still enough plankton left over to sift down and feed this gigantic deep-water biomass.
Can't nobody stop the plankton.
Trump, Puget Sound Crab and You.
In this election season, buying, serving and singing our local crab is the least a local patriot can do. Last week F.O.G. was appalled to see a flagship downtown restaurant triumphantly advertise Oregon Coast Dungeness, as if it was a selling point, not a measure of shame. In this fleeting moment of large crab, big numbers and low prices, nobody has an excuse for serving out-of-bioregion crab. That would be like voting for, well, you know........
One Crab, One Vote.
Caviar returns to a Hungry City
Breakfast at Jones Ranch
Jff Is delighted to announce the first Salmon Caviar, or Ikura shipment of the season. This year our caviar is exta-fine, coming as it does from Unalakleet Alaska, a small Native city on the banks of the Unalakleet river in far Western Alaska. Chum salmon are netted by skiffs in the river, speedily dressed and the roe processed into golden Ikura. Alaska pink and chum salmon catches were well below forecasts this year and stocks of #1 ikura are extremely short this year. Availability will be spotty and we will run out. Get your name on a tub now!
Best Caviar is found where the river bends.
Dive Fisheries Update.
We here at Jones Ranch love our dive products maybe above all other things. Part of this, surely, is the ever-elusive nature of divers and the resources they pursue. It just wouldn't be the same if we had dive products at our fingertips, Cucumbers and Urchins would likely become an object of familiarity and mild contempt like tilapia filets.
No fear of that happening. This year so far has been a study in deferred gratification on everything dive-caught. From Cukes to Urchins to Pink Scallops, nothing has been straightforward this year. First, both State and Tribal cuke season fired off on August 1 with a slightly reduced cucumber quota. The state fleet thumped almost their entire quota in 6 short weeks. Meanwhile the tribal divers set themselves a reasonable weekly individual quota to spread their fishery out, then promptly closed it to go crabbing. On Urchins the State divers chose to open greens but delay reds 'til late November. Early catches of greens have tested at middling roe percentages, meaning export buyers are lukewarm on them. As of now we are waiting on voting results from the state fleet as to whether or not to go to weekly individual weight restrictions and open reds again.
The tribes opened both reds and greens on September 23, but then closed again for crab season. The tribes are also new to the urchin fishery and there is a substantial learning curve to picking good urchin. Overall this year on quality, we have been pleased but not overwhelmed and we have also seen some early stress-spawning on the greens. Our inside waters are still quite warm and this is likely keeping the urchins from putting on that last little polish. They are due to cool substantially over this weekend with the incoming storm systems.
Pink Scallops are still in DOH limbo as they drag their feet on opening an area with commercial quantities of product. So, order away on Cukes and Urchins, but don't get into any life-threatening situations counting on product availability. Incidentally we have been playing with cukes these last weeks in the Jones Ranch test kitchen. Look for recipe hints in upcoming Fish-O-Grams.
All we can promise is that we'll keep trying.
Fresh King Crab Again.
Once a Year. Expect Frosty Shells
Alaska Red and Blue King Crab seasons fire off October 15 and we expect the first fresh product on the 18th. This is a special program put together by one of our favorite figures in the West Coast seafood business. This gentleman has been in the business a very long time, been extremely successful and now focuses on specific fun projects. Only a tiny fraction of the catch goes out fresh--98% is cooked and frozen for ease of handling. Our crab is captured, brought into King Cove, cooked, then dunked into the brine-freeze tank until the shell freezes but the meat does not, then pulled and packed in 32# cases. This process allows for distance transportation in a fresh state. When they arrive at your cantina, merely pop them in salted, boiling water for a few minutes and wow customers and staff alike. Again, frost on the shells is a desirable condition, and one that has a lot of science behind it.
The 2016 quota has been cut substantially. Prices will be higher than last year and the season will be short this year, though we may end up being lucky on this front--our friend may hold some crab live in King Cove to stretch the fresh season out 'till Thanksgiving, because he himself wants some for his own dinner.
Until next time, we are your Puget Sound Crab Chauvenist, Vodka Swilling, Cucumber Boiling, King Crab Frosting, JFF Crew. Dedicated to bringing you the best, most quintessential Northwest Sea-to-Table and Farm-to-Table Protein Specialties.
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