This Week in Fish August 1, 2011

This week in Fish…  

August 1, 2011

Wild Rockfish

Harvests of wild rockfish came on strong in both Maryland and Massachusetts late last week. Hook & liners in Maryland landed so many fish, the DNR closed the MD hook & line season until September 1! There are massive schools of primarily 2 to 4 lb fish just south of Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant (mid-Bay), and individual fishermen were catching as much as 1000 lbs in a day!  In Massachusetts, almost half of the 1,000,000 lb quota has been caught since the season opened July 12th. If this catch rate continues, the Massachusetts rock season could close before Maryland re-opens September first. With that being said, wild rockfish fillets are a tremendous value this week with all sizes being under the $10 mark.

Fresh Crabmeat

Things are changing very quickly in the fresh crabmeat market. Venezuelan production is off by over 80%! Plants that were taking in 40,000 kilos of live crab per day are now buying only 6,000 kilos. That was the level of production back in April when prices were almost $20. There are a fair amount of crabs in the Gulf. We will be transitioning to all domestic meat by the third week in August. Venezuela goes on conservation from August 15th to October 1. There is enough meat being produced in the US to meet demand. Prices will rise and settle out somewhere in the $17 to $19 range depending on the origin of the meat. We are starting to see of few more live soft crabs on a consistent basis. Prices are very high but if you want to try some, let your sales rep know the day before.

Fresh Shrimp

Beautiful shrimp out of Pamlico Sound North Carolina arrive each week now. We are carrying 26's, 21's and 16's. The small boats come in on Wednesdays, in towns like Engelhard and Wanchese, while the larger vessels come in on Thursday and Fridays. The shrimp are "headed" at the dock and the run through grading machines, and then boxed with wet ice in 50 lb cartons. Availability is excellent and will remain so through Labor Day.

Put them on your menus now!

Halibut

We all knew halibut prices would be high this summer when the Alaskan quota was cut by 10 million pounds. But know one would have predicted that whole fish prices would rise almost 20% since the start of the season. As of today, 62% of the 40 million pound Alaskan halibut quota has already been caught. It is unlikely that the season will last until the scheduled November 15th closing date. We have also been getting in some incredible quality east coast halibut. These fish are from short openings they have in various Canadian provinces. Almost all the fish are still in rigor. Something to see. We are selling whole halibut at almost $11 and fillets just over $16.

Atlantic Salmon

The Atlantic salmon market has stabilized for the time being. One of the big Chilean salmon fillet producers was put on FDA hold and that allowed the market to firm for the time being. Since its peak on May 19th, the market has fallen over 25% on whole fish. Fillets are under $7 and becoming somewhat reasonable again. Look for the downward trend in salmon prices to continue through the end of the year.

Black Sea Bass

Massachusetts has 101,000 lbs left to catch on their 2011 sea bass quota. Their season opened August 1. Method of harvest is "hook & line" and "bass pots", similar to a crab pot except for fish.  The quota should last about three weeks. Prices will start out high and then come down.

Snapper

Fishing is good in the Atlantic for Vermillion snappers (bee-liners), both 1-2 and 2-4 lb whole fish. Many of our customers serve a whole 1-1.25 snapper as an entree. The weather is fairly calm and landings are consistent. Groupers, however, are not very plentiful. The market is high and landings are scarce. We are getting Genuine American Reds out of Florida on a regular basis (twice weekly). Mahi landings are minimal and prices are out of site on fillets ($12).  We are getting periodic landings of grey tile out of Virginia waters. The boats actually leave from Oregon Inlet in NC and travel 90 miles to the fish. Hopefully, NC will open its own waters for grey tile fishing sometime in August.

Swordfish

The harvest of Canadian swordfish off Nova Scotia is finally bringing sword prices down to a point making them a relative bargain. Many halibut boats in eastern Canada switch gears to harvest swordfish from now through the full moon in October. Swordfish pricing should remain stable and a value over the next 60 days.

Live Lobster

This will be our last week of "hardshell" lobsters. Over 80% of the New England lobsters have shed and the "firm shells" from certain areas are finally hard enough to ship. Prices will drop significantly next week.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK AND AS ALWAYS WE APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS!