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Commercial crab season opens today By Mark Freeman As Oregon�s commercial crab season is set to open today, fishermen are predicting a bumper crop that will start showing up on Rogue Valley seafood shelves as early as this afternoon � if crabbers and fish buyers can settle on a price. Oregon crab fishermen made $31.5 million last year � more money than ever before � and there�s reason to hope this season will be good, too, said Nick Furman, director of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission. Here�s a look at Oregon crab harvests over the past five years: 1995-96: 17.6 million pounds landed, $22.4 million 1996-97: 7 million pounds landed, $13.3 million 1997-98: 7 million pounds landed, $12.4 million 1998-99: 9.1 million pounds landed, $16.2 million 1999-2000: 15.6 million pounds landed, $31.5 million Early tests by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife show the quality of crabs on the south and central coast is better than last year, when many of the animals had soft shells and low meat volume. That has fishermen�s hopes high for this season in Brookings, where a fleet of 50 to 60 crabbing boats hope to start hauling in the fresh Dungeness that will be iced, landed and shipped immediately to markets in the Rogue Valley. Thirty to 60 percent of the Brookings-landed crab are consumed locally, said Russ Crabtree, manager of the Port of Brookings-Harbor. However, fishermen and buyers still have not agreed on a price for this season�s crabs, Crabtree said. Without a price agreement, fishermen won�t pull their pots and fill their holds with Dungeness, he said. Last year�s beginning price was a record high of $1.75 per pound and contributed to a landing of almost $5 million worth of crab from the Brookings fleet. "We�re setting pots and negotiating price right now," said Crabtree, but no resolution had been reached by Thursday evening. Reports from some of the discussions between fishermen and processors indicate the price this year is likely to be between $1.60 and $1.40 per pound, Furman said. Processors aren�t likely to pay that much this year because they have more frozen crab on hand than they did last year, he said. Last year�s record payments to fishermen came as a result of a combination of factors that included high prices, a low inventory of frozen crab, and a good catch of 15.6 million pounds, the fifth-largest ever in Oregon. More than 300 Oregon boats participated in last year�s crab season. At least that many will be fishing this year, Furman said. At the start of last season, Oregon boats placed about 135,000 pots, up from 116,000 the year before. Rod Kaiser, from the ODFW�s marine program in Newport, said he believes this year the number of pots � steel and wire traps that cost $135 each � could hit 150,000. While the south coast crabbers are pinching themselves over the prospects of a bumper season, their north coast brethren are more fidgety because the news about their Dungeness is not as positive. Some crabs in northern Oregon still don�t meet the state�s meat quality goals. State wildlife officials require that a crab�s edible meat be at least 25 percent of its entire body weight before the harvest can begin. Tests done on sample crabs north of Cape Lookout show that population will be just shy of the limit today, so the season there won�t start until Dec. 15. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.