The Dungeness Fishermen's Strike May Last Until After Thanksgiving

Willy Volk/Flickr

​The Bay Area's Dungeness crab season opened for the year on November 15, but fresh, local crabs still haven't appeared in the markets. On Tuesday, the Chronicle reported that the San Francisco Crab Boat Association is on strike, holding out for better prices from the seafood processors who buy the crab from them. The association is demanding $2.50 per pound, as opposed to the $1.75 per pound the crab processors have been paying for the past few years.

According to Paul Johnson, owner of Monterey Fish Market, as of today the fishermen and the processors still haven't come to an agreement. "They're still 20 percent away from each other," Johnson says. "There's bad weather today, so no one's going to come to an agreement right now. Monday we'll probably have one."

Mel Wickliffe, owner of Pier 45 Seafood, a wholesaler specializing in Dungeness crabs, thinks San Franciscans who want crab for Thanksgiving will be disappointed. "We have a world of crab pots on the dock right now, and it'll take a day and a half to get them in and out of the water," he says. "On Monday, if they go fishing, it'll take them Monday and Tuesday to get the crabs to us, and it takes time to process and distribute the crabs. By Wednesday [the crabs] will be useless, since most people will do their shopping on Tuesday or Wednesday., and it takes even after loading."

Wickliffe is frustrated because he and other small, local producers agreed to the Crab Boat Association's $2.50 price long ago. "The fishermen are holding out for a [large] processors that were staying at $2." SFoodie has made several attempts to contact Crab Boat Association head Larry Collins for comment, but hasn't heard back from him yet.

Still, says Wickliffe, there's a benefit to the delay for customers. "I think there will be good numbers of crab this season," he says, "and when the consumer goes to buy a crab, he'll get a good one. The delay means they'll just get bigger and fatter."