1. HARD CRABS COMING ON – SOFT CRABS GOING AWAY – As is customary after the first big shed, hard crabs become plentiful (because they get hungry and have lots of room to grow inside their new shells) and soft crabs become very scarce. There will be a handful of jumbos and whales daily that will get divided up. Primes (4 dz per tray) and hotel primes (5 dz per tray) are much easier to come by but require prior notice.
2. LOCAL WILD ROCK SEASON STARTS – Pound net season has started in the Maryland waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Pound nets are a “passive” form of harvest as opposed to gill nets that are dropped on schools of fish. If you have ever been on the Bay and seen what looks like someone’s backyard fence in the water, that is a pound net – fish are “herded” into an opening and cannot figure how to get out. They are caught alive. All three sizes of wild rock are available – 2/4, 5/8’s and 8 up.
3. LOCAL MAHI STILL EXTREMELY PLENTIFUL – looks like we have at least a couple more weeks of this highly migratory species swimming by ‘the Point” off Cape Hatteras North Carolina. Fillets are under $10
4. CAPTAIN DEREK STILL GOING SCALLOPING OUT OF WEST OCEAN CITY MD – The F/V Second to None steams 51 miles east out of OC Inlet daily (weather permitting) to catch his 600 lb daily trip limit. He is back at the dock in less than 12 hours. No where else in our industry can you buy a scallop less than 24 hours from being on the bottom of the ocean floor. Freshness is unsurpassed !!
5. WILD SOCKEYES IN MUCH BETTER SHAPE THAN WILD KINGS – Biologists have had to revise downward, twice, their projections for spring chinook returns on the Columbia River this year. They are running now at 50% of the 10 year average. King salmon from California to the Yukon, have been trending downward for almost a decade. There is real concern over what can be done to stop or reverse the trend. SOCKEYES seem much more resilient and prices on fillets are inching down towards reasonableness weekly. Bristol Bay opens soon and should crack the sockeye market wide open next week.
6. AREA 33 & 34 CLOSE IN NOVA SCOTIA – May 31 marked the end of lobster season in the biggest producing areas around eastern and southwest Nova Scotia. Still open are areas around Cape Bretton, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Quebec. The processing plants are going full tilt picking meat and tails for frozen markets. Lobsters, in general, seem to be on a steady northward march, with fishermen in Quebec experiencing now a 500% increase in catches per season. Maine production is still minimal at this time. Expect that to change soon after the 4th of July when the shed starts. Live prices this week are reasonable and the quality of our hardshells is phenomenal
7. GULF AMBERJACK – In the mood for a change this week ? How about some beautiful, hook & line Gulf amberjack fillets @ $9.95 This fish is versatile and can be prepared in a variety of ways.
8. ALASKA FEELING THE HEAT – it came out the other day that the average temperature in Alaska during the month of March was 20 degrees above normal. Research is showing that the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. Don’t worry – climate change is not real
9. OTHER FISH FOR SPECIALS THIS WEEK – Corvina, butterfly bronzino, barramundi, gill net monk, dayboat halibut, large sword, and Gulf yellowfin tuna
