Top Species
Oregon is working to get
Dungeness in front of more
chefs and on more menus.
Photo courtesy of Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission
Te survey estimated there
were just 300 million crabs
in the bay this year vs. more
than 760 million in 2012.
from Maryland and Virginia were in short supply initially and the season got of
to a slower start due to cold
weather. "And right now,
everyone wants softshell,"
he says.
Maryland has reduced the
commercial harvest of female
blue crabs after the winter
survey showed the Chesapeake Bay crab population
was at a fve-year low. Te
Maryland Department of
Natural Resources lowered
the daily allowable catch on
females by 20 to 40 percent
in response to the survey.
Dependable Dungeness
Dungeness crab harvests
were a bit slow out of the
starting gate, but have since
picked up, according to
Hugh Link, executive director of the Oregon Dungeness
Crab Commission.
Preseason testing showed
the meat-fll rates weren't
good enough, explains
Link, so the season was delayed until January. However, landings took of since
then, and were at 17 million pounds after the frst
12 weeks. Wholesale prices
in May were $2.66 a pound
vs. the end-of-season price
of $2.95. But Link notes
that as availability drops of,
prices go up.
Dungeness exports have
slowed down somewhat,
says Link, with China and
other parts of Asia being the
biggest markets.
But domestic demand remains good for Dungeness, he
says, and has been helped by
attention it has garnered from
the food community. He says
a recent cooking event at the
Monterey Bay Aquarium featured Dungeness at seven different cooking stations, and
Bon Appétit magazine named
it among the top 25 food
trends for 2013.
Link keeps an eye on the
foodservice sector and is noticing chefs using Dungeness
in diferent ways. "Chefs are
an important part of getting the word out. And we're
looking forward domestically to seeing it on more
menus," he says.
Contributing Editor Joanne
Friedrick lives in Portland, Maine
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July 2013
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