Seafood Business

King crab

Alaska’s fishery shows no sign of rebound, and supplies from Russia are ebbing

If there is a single seafood that is synonymous with the raw, rugged beauty of Alaska, it is king crab. Crabs this big — males can grow to more than 20 pounds, with a leg span of 5 feet — could be found only in the most remote, harshest reaches of the planet.

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At a glance

Prices

The history of the Alaska king crab fishery is a storied one, rich with tales of danger, lives lost at sea and fantastic fortunes made.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, crab boat owners were paying off new, multimillion-dollar vessels with the profits from a single season. Crewmen were returning to Seattle with pockets stuffed full of cash after reeling in crew shares that regularly topped $100,000 for a season that lasted a few months.

But the boom went bust about 20 years ago, as Alaska’s king crab landings plummeted from almost 80,000 metric tons to 7,500 metric tons in just two years. Since then, the state’s king crab resource has remained a mere shadow of its former self, and poor recruitment has kept annual harvests below 12,000 metric tons.

When asked why king crab stocks have failed to bounce back, Alaska fisheries biologists point to an explosion in populations of cod and salmon, both of which eat young king crab, and warmer-than-normal water temperatures.

With the Alaska king crab fishery down and almost out, U.S. and Japanese buyers have become dependent on Russian king crab, supplies of which soared following the collapse of the Soviet Union. From 1993-98, U.S. imports of Russian king crab, mostly red, skyrocketed from just 1,000 metric tons of frozen sections a year to almost 12,000 metric tons.

In Japan, more than 70,000 metric tons of Russian king crab, most of it live, was imported the same year.

But now, after years of heavy fishing, marked by poached and therefore unreported catches, the flood of Russian crab is quickly ebbing. This April, after years of badgering by Russian officials trying desperately to rein in the poachers and save what’s left of their resource, Japanese authorities reluctantly agreed to turn away Russian fishing boats that did not have proper customs clearance from Russian officials. As a result, the price of live king crab quickly jumped 30 percent in Japanese ports this spring.

One ray of hope in king crab supplies lies in the fjords along the Barents Sea coast, where red king crabs introduced by the Russians in the 1960s have established themselves. Populations there now support a growing commercial fishery. This year, Russia and Norway will share a quota of about 1,500 metric tons, doubled from the previous year.

Supply outlook

This month, the National Marine Fisheries Service will report the results from its annual summer Alaska crab survey. Unless the findings offer a big surprise, the October Bristol Bay red king crab fishery, which produces about two-thirds of the state’s catch in three days, is unlikely to yield much more than last year’s meager 3,500 metric tons.

With the blue king crab fisheries off the Pribilofs and St. Matthews likely to remain closed, the rest of the Alaska harvest will be the smaller golden king crab. This year’s Aleutian Island golden king crab quota is about 2,500 metric tons.

Longer term, no one is predicting a rebound of Alaska king crab stocks, so large legs and claws will remain in short supply.

U.S. supplies of Russian king crab, on the other hand, are increasing, even though official quotas have been slashed by more than half. Japanese officials’ decision to turn away Russian poachers has led to a moderate jump in U.S. imports.

Through May, imports of Russian crab were up 17 percent, to about 3,400 metric tons. Look for supplies of Russian king crab to be relatively good over the short term, as more crab is landed legally and smaller sizes are exported to the United States.

Although it’s a trickle, the first king crab from Norway is showing up in the United States: About 15 metric tons of product were shipped from last fall’s Norwegian fishery.

Price trends

With most of the large Russian crab and Alaska crab going to Japan, the price to distributors for the larger sizes (9/12, 12/14) of king crab legs and claws has increased about 20 percent since the beginning of the year, from about $11 a pound to $13.50. This reflects a gradual recovery in demand from upscale restaurants, the primary market.

However, the price of smaller king crab legs, which are in good supply, has declined from about $7.25 a pound for 24-up red legs in January to $6.75 this July.

If the Bristol Bay catch is similar to last year’s, and Japan buys most of the catch, look for larger sizes of king crab to stay between $13 and $15 a pound and for smaller sizes to range between $7 and $9.

Buying tips

More chefs are lining up to buy fresh king crab, which is available in October from Bristol Bay and in February from Southeast Alaska. Keep in mind that fresh king crab can have a drip moisture loss of about 10 percent in the first 24 hours after it leaves Alaska, so make sure you and your supplier are on the same page.

The big caveat with king crab is broken product. The industry standard is 5 percent maximum. Be sure to sample shipments regularly, or your crab supplier could be making more money than he should.

Culinary notes

When they’re paying $30 or $40 a pound for king crab legs, few chefs want to fool around with fancy king crab dishes and risk disappointing their clientele. King crab is almost always served simply with drawn butter and lemon. Still, a few places are trying a new twist. Seattle’s Palisade Restaurant roasts king crab sections on a cedar plank and serves them with a creamy butter sauce.