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alaskan-crab-fishing

Shout out to all the Alaskan Red King crab lovers -hold on to your hankies…there may be a silver lining to all this kerfuffle.

The kerfuffle I’m talking about is the federal government shut downs including the national fisheries managers who hand out the crab fishing quotas for the season.

The main attraction to the popular TV show “The Deadliest Catch”, the Red King Crab may live a few more days because there will probably be a delay in the opening which is scheduled for next week, Oct. 15. This really really sucks for the crab fisherman who are sitting at dock in Alaska anxiously waiting for Washington D.C. to get their asses in gear.

Here’s the deal -The majority of the King Crabs caught are processed and prepared for shipment to Japan. It is a Japanese tradition to give and eat King crab during their holiday season. It is the Japan market who sets the pricing of the crabs. Missing this holiday would be a huge blow to the crabbers pocket books.

However, and here comes one of the silver linings…

If the fishermen miss the Japanese holiday then they will have a lot more Red King crabs to move than ever before. This huge supply would bring down the demand which would in return bring down the cost of the crabs. This means we would be able to afford to buy king crab without having to take out another mortgage on our house!

The second silver lining?

While all those boats are sitting, waiting at the docks in Alaska’s Dutch Harbor anyone looking for a crab fishing job has a good chance to meet a lot of the captains of the ships, thus increasing their chance to land a job or at the very least make some contacts.

 

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