Experts believe that popular seasonal fare has been in short supply, but influx expected from northern waters. It is found that the price of Dungeness crab is falling at local seafood counters, prompted by this week’s opening of new fishing grounds off Northern California and Oregon. The price could slash to $3.99 a pound today at some markets, a dollar below the lowest retail prices when the season began last month.
It is said that a Santa Rosa seafood company sells directly to customers and at local farmers markets has announced a price of $2.99 a pound this week for live crab. According to fish processors and retailers it’s too early to know the abundance of crabs off Eureka and Oregon where the fishing grounds opened Monday.
Ken Silveira, an owner of Pacific Markets in Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park and Sebastopol, said that if they want to get their fill of crab at the best possible price, now would be the best time to do it, between now and Christmas. It is said that the crab season began Nov. 15 with small catches off Bodega Bay and San Francisco.
This week the price of crab to fishermen plunged to $1.60 a pound, compared with as much as $3.25 a pound paid last week in Bodega Bay. “That ought to get some people in the store,” said Jim Caito of Caito Fisheries in Fort Bragg. G&G Supermarkets in Santa Rosa and Petaluma have sold fresh crab for $3.99 a pound, said John Drake, a seafood buyer at the Santa Rosa store.
