Quinlan Bros. Starts Snow Crab Processing at 
Rebuilt Plant in Bay de Verde
Quinlan Brothers Ltd. announced on Tuesday that a small quantity of snow crab will be run through the processing line to ensure the plant is ready as boats begin returning to shore with their first landings of the new season later this week. The plant will process only snow crab this season, but the company is preparing to expand into groundfish when stocks allow. Around a year ago the Quinlan Brothers' processing facility burned to the ground, which had widespread implications for Newfoundland's snow crab industry from the people the plant employed to buyers that had lined up snow crab deals for the season.
The Russian Federal Fishery Agency officially announced that it will hold an auction for the distribution of crab quotas in the Far Eastern fishing basin on May 18-19 of the current year. The auctions will allow companies to control crab quota through 2026. The quotas will include all of the major crab species in particular species of king crab, helmet crab, and opilio crab in major crab-producing areas.
A report on raw material prices for Vietnamese shrimp shows prices are up 24 percent since 2016 and are at a two-year high. Lack of domestic shrimp in the market has been attributed to the spike in prices this year. The Vietnamese have stepped up importing shrimp from foreign suppliers like India in order to meet the needs of processors.
We run an opinion from Tom Mazzetta who calls for increased cooperation between domestic and imported seafood operators in the United States. Mazzetta points to the success of the Maine lobster and Alaskan salmon industries as examples of how domestically sourced and imported seafood products can coexist in the US. "We need to come together as an industry to support increased seafood consumption as an overall goal, not only for the benefit of our collective bottom-lines, but for the health benefits of eating more seafood, the environmental benefits of seafood production versus other proteins, and to address regulations that artificially inflate prices for American shoppers and diners," said Mazzetta.
Finally, dire West Coast ocean salmon seasons haven't officially started but are already affecting non-salmon fisheries such as sablefish and Pacific whiting writes Susan Chambers. The Pacific Fishery Management Council approved no summer salmon seasons in parts of Oregon and California and limited seasons on the rest of the coast to protect struggling stocks such as coho in Washington and Klamath fall Chinook and Sacramento winter Chinook in Oregon and California. Sablefish harvesters will get increased trip limits to help avoid salmon conflicts, and the whiting fleet will get a special additional bycatch allocation since moving out of Klamath salmon areas will force them into a higher bycatch zone.
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