The Winding Glass: Lobster Prices are Exploding...Is that a Signal or Noise for the Crab Market?

[The Winding Glass is the Opinion and Commentary column by John Sackton, Founder of SeafoodNews]

Lobster prices have shot up, catching almost everyone off guard. Live lobster is not the issue. Live prices have jumped 33% since the Southwest Nova Scotia season opened on December 2. This is a normal winter pattern. For the past three years, wholesale live prices have generally risen 30% to 40% between December and February. 

Canadian Lobster landings in Southwest Nova Scotia have been steadily declining...

OPINION: Industrial Trawling in a Climate-Impacted Arctic Undermines Resilience, Adds Needless Risk

The cold, productive waters of the northern Bering Sea are the traditional and contemporary homelands, and lifeblood of, coastal Yup’ik, St. Lawrence Yupik, Cup’ik and Inupiaq Peoples who have lived in reciprocal relationship with, and relied on, the abundance of marine life for thousands of years. 

This is a place unlike any other in the world where huge migrations of whales, seals, and walruses occur every spring taking advantage of the Arctic’s burst of productivity following the retreat of winter sea ice. Birds arrive from across the ...

OPINION: State of AK, NPFMC Oppose Revisions to Fishing Laws

“Fishing is the beating heart of Alaska…We must do all we can to sustain our great fisheries and ensure that our resources are managed to benefit Alaskans first and foremost,” Governor Mike Dunleavy said in January 2022, when amid much hope and hoopla, he accepted recommendations of the Alaska Bycatch Review Task Force that he created by Administrative Order in 2021. The hardworking group met 45 times over the course of a full year and produced a comprehensive product.

That was followed in 2023 by a...

Bob Alverson Looks Back on 1975-76: Critical Years of IPHC and the Magnuson Stevens Act

Earlier this month, Bob Alverson, the Manager of the Fishing Vessel Owners Association (FVOA) and U.S. Commissioner on the International Pacific Halibut Commission, was asked to make comments for the IPHC’s 100th Anniversary celebration last week. He admitted at the time he “kind of went overboard” and subsequently abbreviated his public remarks at the ceremony last week.

His full account of global forces impacting IPHC during 1975-76, as he entered the dynamic world of fisheries management, follows. Only 50 years earlier, the IPHC ...

OpEd: Update to Federal Fisheries Management Could Provide Voice on Trawl Bycatch, Fisheries Access

JUNEAU, ALASKA—Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, Bering Sea Fishermen's Association, SalmonState, Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association (ALFA), The Boat Company, and DeepStrike Sportfishing applaud the start of a federal process that gives Alaskans an opportunity to weigh in on potential new guidelines for federal fisheries management — including trawl bycatch, support for community-based fisheries, and much-needed consideration of climate change in management decisions. NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Fisheries on Monday announced a process to update three key conservation and...