The Fort Bragg Advocate has a story on Mendo coast fishermen trying to squeeze some money in a market where they sell fish on the dock to distributors for about a dollar a pound then the same fish shows up in the grocery store for over 10 times that amount. The groundfish fleet is trying to maintain some solidarity to rectify the situation.
Prices have been flat for 10 years despite rising costs in everything else, said Tommy Ancona, owner of Tommy’s Marine in Fort Bragg and president of the Fisherman’s Marketing Association.
The association represents many of the 157 boats that fish the West Coast. Ancona said 140 boats are now tied up and not fishing, some of which are not association members but are willing to forego fishing to remedy the rates.
There are only a half dozen companies that buy groundfish, including Fort Bragg based Caito Fisheries. Ancona said more than half the market is controlled by Pacific Choice Seafood of Eureka, which maintains buying stations all over the West Coast, including Fort Bragg. He said there are seven boats in Noyo Harbor now tied up, as part of the price effort that started March 1.
Unlike salmon or bass, groundfish (cod, sole, snapper, etc.) are caught all year with some breaks between two-month seasons. I’m one of those weirdos who actually prefers the taste of ling cod to salmon, but apparently it’s not that much of a better deal for the consumer anyway.
I seem to remember a similar huge middleman take issue with milk a few years back. Can anybody explain the economics involved?
Ling cod photo from Hood, Sport, & Dive.
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March 30, 2007 at 11:46 pm
Anonymous
I can’t explain the economics, but I know the supply is dwindling. I remember reading some article about how the groundfish populations are showing large quantities of hermaphrodites, as a probable result of pollution.
March 31, 2007 at 12:05 am
Anonymous
Usually, when the “Middleman” gets too greedy, the fishermen market their own product directly. Bypassing either the wholesaler, retailer, or both. But first, it has to be worth the time and effort to do it. Is it?
March 31, 2007 at 12:30 am
Eric V. Kirk
Well, at a difference of 9 bucks a pound, I would think it’s worth a reasonable effort. But Ft. Bragg fishermen don’t have the same options as those in other more populated areas.
And dwindling supply doesn’t explain the low dock prices.
March 31, 2007 at 1:36 am
Anonymous
It’s not easy to process the fish; it’s a whole different thing than catching them. You have to maintain a licensed plant, and more and more that’s no small task, answering to the FDA.
March 31, 2007 at 2:06 am
Anonymous
Don’t listen to that crap! Near shore ground fish are healthy and abundant. Stocks are kept healthy by strict bio-mass limits,a sever reduction in the number of permit holders and non-fishing protection zones and defacto-protection zones from the many rough and unaccessable miles of coast line. Oh, don’t forget the incredible bad weather and rough seas that put us in the harbor many days a year. Why is the price high? The cost of gear and fuel and crew wages and the trips to doctor and our insurance and big buyers who lock us out as much as possible, just a few of the realities in a life of fishing. Buy local,healthy, sustainable fish from enviromentally sound local fishermen. Don’t fall for the BS/Pr about more restrictions. If you do we will not survive and you will be buying unhealthy S.E. Asian sea food products from Wall Mart and will have only yourselves to blame.
March 31, 2007 at 5:03 am
Anonymous
Can anybody explain the economics involved?
Yes and no.
I fished AK salmon King crab and Tanner crab.
When I began thereb were a number of competing buyers. When I left only one. A man named ***** King.
And the secondary buyer for salmon was either one agent or a block who entirely boycotted sockeye in 97.
The bottom line is, there is no free market anywhere on earth. Capitalism is a sham. What exists instead is degrees of monopoly and efforts to funnel profits into sectors of production, distribution and retail sale.
It is true whether you speak of softwood pulp, scrap iron, human labor or canola oil.
Every component of an industry will be squeezed to focus all of the market controls and profits into one sector.
It could be retail, or distribution as is the case with bottom fish, or a monopoly on raw materials as is the case with agrifarm products.
This is the reason family farms died, family fisheries died, small timber concerns are all but extinct and why mega corps dominate nearly every industry.
Moneyed interests are raping the earth. And Jason Leopold is unreliable.
In this case the fisherman can rectify this by establishing cooperative distribution. It is a lotta footwork to accomplish, but it can definitely work.
Play the same game back. They still control supply, market direct to the retailer or better yet a combo of retailer and end user.
March 31, 2007 at 2:51 pm
Fred
Eric wrote, “I’m one of those weirdos who actually prefers the taste of ling cod to salmon,…”.
You and me both, well kinda. I generally prefer rockfish to salmon. The exception being freshly caught salmon. The difference between a salmon you or someone else caught and is eaten right away, vs. store bought salmon, is remarkable.
April 1, 2007 at 4:11 am
Eric V. Kirk
It is remarkable. Of course, a lot of store bought fish is also farmed (and usually pumped full of orange dye so that it practically looks flourescent), which doesn’t taste very good fresh or frozen.
I like salmon. I just like ling cod better.