Record prices, heavy Dungeness catch in Wrangell, Petersburg

The Wrangell and Petersburg region took the top spot for Southeast commercial crab catches this past summer season, according to the Department of Fish and Game. Even better, it was a record year for prices.

From June 15 to Aug. 15, 680,000 pounds of Dungeness crab was harvested in District 8, which includes the waters north and west of Wrangell up past Petersburg. Sixty-nine permits were issued for the district.

For all of Southeast, 3.09 million pounds of crab were harvested with 205 permit holders reporting. The catch equates to $13 million with Dungeness selling at an average of $4.21 per pound. That’s a record high-price, according to Joe Stratman, lead shellfish biologist in Southeast for Fish and Game.

Last year’s harvest was the second largest on record, but was valued at $9.96 million, with a purchase price of $1.70 per pound. A total of 5.87 million pounds were caught during last year’s summer season.

Dan Lesh, a consultant at McKinley Research Group in Juneau specializing in the seafood industry, said this year’s increased prices could be due to people cooking more at home.

“The rationale that I’ve heard, and it makes sense to me, is the premium seafoods have been in demand, especially the premium products that can be sold at retail,” Lesh said. “Dungeness was being sold at retail — and still is — but there’s king crab and snow crab that seem to translate into retail pretty well,” though king and snow crab are traditionally more a restaurant menu item.

Lesh said that uptick in retail demand comes from people cooking more at home during the pandemic. Cautious optimism within the seafood industry is that the higher demand will continue for now, he said.

Fish and Game uses the first seven days of the summer harvest season to estimate totals for the separate summer and fall/winter seasons. Based on those numbers, the department estimated an additional 1.14 million pounds of Dungeness would be harvested in the Southeast fall/winter crab effort.

The fall season for commercial crabbing runs from Oct. 1 to Feb. 28.