Yep, we’ve been Covid hit, I wish it was Coveted. We’ll be down for a couple weeks until we get the green light. My crew and my wife along with myself came up positive. We are not wasting too much brain space on the where and how, the main thing is none of us have the bad fever that leads to the dire consequences. I can see why it can lead to major problems, I did have a day with the hard to get breath routine, it was like being at high altitude. So folks, that’s our simple story at the moment. The crab pots will be having a truly long soak and I’ll have some real tidy paperwork up to date. I’ll do a blog once we are all clear and things are back to normal. Mid next week will be the earliest. If you need to get crab this week. Friday is a good weather day after the big blow. Boats will be out, Saturday there should be a lot of boats in harbor selling. We’ll be back!!! Barry

Wow, an absolutely astonishing and deeply appreciated Wow, on your and the public’s, support with demand for live crab. You’ve really spoken a resounding blow to the cartels attempts to feed you frozen crab. In reality the crab speak for themselves and we all know that a freshly cooked crab is unbeatable.. So, this season so far from my point of view. We got all our gear in the ocean before the opener. It was not issue free and we really only had one true day of crab retrieval, Thursday. It was that 3rd time lucky deal. We’ve had to push for that scenario before, we generally get there. This website I had set up back in about 2016 was with the spurt of thought for online sales. I have honestly not had to really go past my texting and you will note I started some emails with salmon last year. With our delayed start I had time to learn the admin side of this web page. I also learned enough on Mailchimp to notify you all of incoming fresh catch. My phone has bee full on with texts and emails. I’m overly grateful with the response I’ve had. I also had the “be careful what you ask for” scenario The opener was highly unique. We fought for our justice on a fair price then hit the water, Lo and behold the crab are not there this year. Boom the next day the suppliers price doubles. Brain fart me earlier sent you an email on a fair price mark up from original numbers. I pull back into harbor with the realization the season is going to be slow and a grind. I also see every other boat is $2 above my price and the demand through the roof. It’s all good. As you are aware I explained my predicament to you all. Your tips were generous and covered my crew feeling they had a dumb skipper. Our future with orders. Currently demand can not meet supply. It’s not wow we for us, as our usual harvest far outweighs this scenario. 2008 was the last time we had a season similar to this. I’ll need to be very careful with orders here. Over ordering is a foolish exercise and I know the efforts you go through to get to the harbor. I’ll leave this current blog here. I’m in the bath planning my next move after a tumultuous start to this season. Once again. Thank you all. By your demand for the freshest crab you have given us a stronger voice in the marketing battles we must face. Cheers Captain Barry

      The Never-ending-story. Well, 2020 has gone, let’s start again. The crab fleet is tied to the dock in Washington, Oregon and California. There is major discrepancy in the price we want and what the major player is offering. Next obvious question would be, why should it affect my boat because I sell directly to yourselves and local suppliers? The big cartel is PAC choice. They also have there fingers in the fleet by giving loans out to boats. They are “there” boats. These are high volume large vessels that can handle in one load, what would take me the whole season to get. PAC choice controls the markets and have recently moved as far south as Bodega Bay. This year you would have noticed a lot of frozen crab on the market. That is PAC choice product. They have effectively taken San Francisco’s Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years markets from us and the smaller suppliers. How? They have impregnated themselves into our fleet. The volume of crab that does come into the docks could not be handled by the smaller suppliers. Smaller suppliers can not stick there necks out to far because PAC will take them out. If I went out and set my pots with my own market against the fleet consensus which is manipulated by PAC strategists, I would suffer consequences. I may lose all my pots. This would likely not be a direct order from PAC, but crab boats with the bravo “my way or the highway” retributive logic. It is not a free market. So, how do we solve this problem? I for one am going to let this season play out. I have been in the crab industry here for over a decade but still consider my self new boy on the block with these scenarios. I’m vocal at meetings but nevertheless do get rolled a lot. I’m letting this play out at the moment because this is the year to do so. 1. There is not much crab out there. we know that. 2. The demand for crab during the holidays would have swamped our docks. Boats would have all been selling from the dock due to PAC’s stalled negotiations and coupled with covid and suppliers trucks, I think covid would have won. Our dock sales would have been shut down. 3. PAC is showing there cards more clearly now, they want our season to start here in San Francisco from January 1st on. That would give them the holiday market here. PAC did send a letter to California fish and game alluding to that. They alluded to basically a coastwise opener on one date. It is a well crafted letter where there hidden agenda of dominating the market is not apparent. They used the whales and “fisherman asked us” to write this. Whales are a separate issue here and I will be devoting a section on my website to that issue. I spotted a major hole in that letter that I will be discussing with CDFW director Bonham. That being, at the height of Covid. PAC wants to bomb the entire coast into there facilities. If any of you have sent our harbor when the crab season is in full swing, it’s pandemonium. I am noticing a lot of fisherman in the fleet for San Francisco wanting our November 15th start back. I believe we can push PAC back. Our dealings will be with NGO’s and the exploding whale populations. Our coast is a healthy coast. We are regulated plenty. With crab, we only keep males over 6 1/4”. The breeding cycle is not interrupted. Generally, crab populations move in a 6 to 7 year cyclic curve. We are on the bottom of one now. HOW CAN YOU HELP. That is simple. Demand the best. Fresh local crab. The frozen rubbish does not compare. To PAC, he can not see you, he’s sees the graph of his frozen market pushing into our market. His customers are shareholders. Here’s hoping. Captain Barry