Some crabbers are captaining their boats across the
strike line, pulling up crab pots and selling their captives to processors.
This violates a strike by three fishing associations – Half-Moon
Bay, Bodega Bay, and the San Francisco Crab Boat Owner’s Associations
– that have been on strike since crab season was supposed to open
November 15. The crabbers went on strike because processors offered
between $1.15 to $1.65 a pound instead of $1.85 – last year’s
price.
A large crab processor, Pacific Seafood, said that
negotiations were continuing amiably, other than an incident on Monday,
when two of their trucks had their diesel lines cut, spilling fuel all
over Pier 45.
Dungeness crabs crawl along the ocean floor from
Alaska down to Half Moon Bay; men like Don Murch trap them. Murch is
a farmer and heavy equipment operator from Bolinas. Last November, Murch
would wake up at first light, check the weather, and then drive down
to Sarah M, his crabbing boat moored off of Wharf Road. After a day
of crabbing he would set up a stand outside the Bolinas Store with a
sign that read, "Don’s Five O’clock at the Dock,"
selling his catch to locals. He said he crabs because he enjoys "being
on the ocean, spending a day out there, seeing that incredible life."
Respect the strike
Murch said that two of four fishermen in Bolinas are
members of the striking San Francisco Association, as he was until two
years ago. Even crabbers who aren’t members of an association,
he said, usually respect a strike line, as a show of solidarity.
But there are four independent accounts of crabbers
who have broken the strike. Ken Marcussen, vice president of the processor
Pacific West Seafood in Petaluma, said that he had heard three or four
days ago that about six or seven boats had gone out crabbing against
the strike. Pacific West is a relatively small buyer, and Marcussen
said the strike "is putting a serious hurt on my business."
Pacific Seafood, because of its size, is influential
is setting the price of crab. Joe Cincotta, general manager of Pacific
Seafood in Sacramento, said that they offered less for the crab this
year because a slowing national economy has slowed the market for crab
and driven down its price. He said that Hurricane Katrina wiped out
a huge market for Pacific Seafood with the loss of the business of casinos
and hotels in Louisiana.
Murch said that processors are paying less because
crab quality was down. "You could literally shake them and hear
them that they hadn’t filled out their shells," said Murch.
‘Good as usual’
Mike Lucas, owner of North Coast Fisheries, said that
there is nothing wrong with the Dungeness crab. He said that the crab
should be at least 23% meat to be edible. A test done last Wednesday
by North Coast, at the request of area fishermen, showed crab in Bodega
Bay to yield 25.3% meat. The test, he said, more or less proves that
the crabs are as good as usual.
Last year, processors paid $1.85 per pound when the
season opened, said Zeke Grader, executive director for the Pacific
Coast Federation of Fishermen Association. This year, the area’s
largest processor, Pacific Choice, offered $1.65 per pound, and then
after the first 10,000 pounds in a day, the price would drop to $1.15
per pound. Grader said that larger boats which come from Oregon, Washington,
Alaska, and Canada are likely go over that 10,000-pound limit every
day, driving the market price down by forcing smaller processors to
drop their rates to compete with the $1.15 per pound.
Cincotta, however, said that when negotiations broke
for the holidays, Pacific Choice was offering $1.25 per pound. But when
the season north of Bodega Bay opens on Dec. 1, he said, crab prices
are likely to go down.
Half-Moon Bay deputy harbormaster Mike Bushnell said
that he had heard rumors of fishermen crabbing out of Half-Moon Bay.
Mike Lucas, owner of the processor North Coast Fisheries, also heard
that three boats were fishing out of Half-Moon Bay. Bolinas fisherman
Josh Churchman, along with Don Murch, also said some fishermen were
breaking the strike.
Strike-breakers
"I’m the guy out there fishing," said
John Dooley, who owns one of the largest fishing boats in San Francisco.
"I am getting $1.75 a pound for my crab. I am an individual businessman.
I do my own negotiating. And when I get my price, I go fishing."
Dooley said that the striking associations don’t
like northern boats from Crescent City, Eureka and Fort Bragg coming
down and fishing in their water and that they planted false rumors that
the crab quality was down. "They think that it is their crab, but
the boats from the north have California fishing licenses," said
Dooley.
The strikers, said Dooley, "are going to starve
the small processors out of business, and then only the big processors
will survive and then they will have all the power."
"They tried to prevent me from fishing in 2001,
and they cut my pots, all 600 of them," said Dooley. "But
I sued their ass and spanked them."