 By Laine Welch February 27, 2006
Researchers from Japan, Norway, Russia, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Maine and the Chesapeake Bay will join with Alaska's leading scientists for three days to share gaps and gains in knowledge about crab enhancement, a process well underway in several countries. Japanese scientists, for example, began cultivating red king crab in the 1960s. A commercial stock enhancement facility currently exists at Hokkaido, and more are planned in Russia and Norway. While similar techniques and approaches are being used worldwide, crab scientists rarely have the opportunity to collaborate with each other because of the distances between research centers. Crab enhancement should not be confused with crab farming, said Dr. Brad Stevens, a NOAA Fisheries biologist who is cultivating Pribilof Island blue king crab at his lab at the Kodiak Fisheries Research Center. "We're talking about capturing female crabs with eggs, hatching them, raising them to a certain size and releasing them into the wild, similar to Alaska's salmon hatcheries. Enhancement is all about putting the crabs back into their natural environment," Stevens explained. "Get the tiny crab past some point of a survival bottleneck that might be 10 percent of your mortality right there," he added. Stevens also stressed that crab cultivation should not be viewed as a competing industry, as it provides more animals into the wild capture fishery. Stevens said it is important for Alaska to keep track of what is going on in other countries. "Before it hits us in the face in the next five to ten years, and suddenly the market is flooded with enhanced king crabs, and we're wondering how we got left out. The train is coming down the track and I want us to be on it," he said. Steering committee member Heather McCarty agreed, adding that it is also important to look beyond the science. "If we are going to grow crabs in Alaska, we also need to consider who is going to catch the crab, where they are going to catch them, who gets the benefit, and impacts on the environment and the marketplace. Those issues should be discussed as we develop the program, not after it takes place," said The Alaska Crab Enhancement
and Rehabilitation Workshop is being bankrolled by Alaska Sea
Grant, Kodiak City and Borough, and the North Pacific Research
Board. It takes place March 14 & 15 at Kodiak College with
a public forum set for Thursday, March 16 at the ComFish Trade
Show. Find more information at: www.uaf.edu/seagrant/Conferences/crab06/info.html
The full line of Yummy Chummies, produced since 1997, has most recently made it onto the retail shelves Kroger's King Soopers and City Markets in Colorado. That follows on the heels of growing sales at Wal-Mart and Sam's Clubs throughout Alaska, CostCo outlets in Texas and Canada, and PetCo, a pet specialties chain with 750 stores nationwide. The Arctic Paws products are also selling at Japan Pet stores in that country. (www.yummychummies.com Gibson said sales of his line of pet treats, vitamins and salmon oil supplements have greatly benefited from all of the positive press surrounding wild salmon and its healthy omega fatty acids. Snazzy new packaging that rivals brands by national retailers also has helped with more market expansion. "That was critical for us to move forward in these large retail outlets," he said, crediting grants from the state and the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board for "making it all possible." Gibson said getting products onto retail shelves is just half the battle. "The bigger challenge is getting people to buy it. It doesn't do any good to put the product into the store and do nothing. That takes aggressive marketing strategies and it is all very costly," he said. Gibson's strategies have clearly started to pay off. Arctic Paws, which now employs five year round workers, has come a long way from its first year when the company purchased just 7,000 pounds of pink salmon. "I purchase them from suppliers in Valdez after they've taken the eggs. It's a real win-win situation for all of us," he said. He wanted to buy more than 800,000 pounds last year, Gibson said, but he is limited as to where to put the fish. "The cold storage situation in Anchorage is pretty slim," he said. Two years ago, Arctic Paws
moved its factory into the former 7,500 square foot Sahalie Seafood
plant, and it is already outgrowing that facility. The company
now employs five year round workers. "We're growing very
quickly. Our sales are up nearly 300 percent from a year ago,
and it doesn't seem to be letting up," Gibson said. "But
we're keeping our head down and our eyes on the ball so we can
perform with all the opportunities that are presented to us."
Australians were also getting a bigger taste of Alaska seafood, where sales of 17 million pounds were up by 22 percent. That value increased by 28 percent to $22 million. Japan remains as Alaska's most
important customer, buying close to 620 million pounds of seafood
last year. Although that reflects a nine percent decline in purchases,
the value rose nine percent to more than $930 million. Overall,
Asia was the biggest export market for Alaska seafood, buying
more than one billion pounds last year, up two percent from 2004.
Publish A Letter on SitNews Read Letters/Opinions Submit A Letter to the Editor
|
||
