Commercial Dungeness crab season is allowed locally as of midnight on January 5th. However, we are seeing no crab gear in the water. Local Dungeness crab fishermen are holding out for better pay after they say they’ve been offered an unacceptable amount per pound.
The buyers are not offering a price that we’re okay with,” says Jake McMaster, Captain of the Fishing Vessel Captain Banjo. “They offered $3. We countered with $3.50 on the 1st of January, and we have not had a response to that price negotiation.”
McMasters says they were getting this price over a decade ago, “$3 a pound– 2012, 2013, ten years ago. Everything was a lot cheaper back then.”
While local fishermen say this amount is unacceptable, Jake mentions that it’s actually up from last year…