By Kiera Morgan

January 1st was the opening day for crab season along the entire Oregon coast, a blessing was held for the fleet on Thursday last week, which was supposed to have been dump day when the crabbers head out to set their gear. However locals may have noticed that they are not seeing the crab boat lights out on the ocean. That is because there is currently a coast wide strike by the crab fishermen. Price negotiations started on December 27th. During the prior opening of the south coast the crab fisherman and processors agreed on a price of $3 a pound. Now that the entire coast is open for crabbing the processors have dropped the price to $2.75 per pound. The negotiations included representatives from the Oregon Department of Agriculture and ODFW plus the crab fishermen and processors.

There was an impasse on the price negotiations and no price has yet to be agreed upon by both parties resulting in a strike by the crab fishermen. The $3 price was also paid in central and northern California. The strike includes all crab fishermen along the entire Oregon Coast and Northern California crabbers are also not setting and pulling pots. According to a local source the processors reportedly have said they are not sure about the volume of crab and didn’t think the market would absorb the $3 per pound and that is why they have dropped the price. The crab are clean healthy and full and there is a lot of money at stake. The revenue for crab in Oregon alone is $50-million. Further negotiations have not yet been announced.