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Posted on January 12, 2008 - by corny

Market demand for Bering Sea red king crab is solid

King crab demand going strong thanks to the popularity of “Deadliest Catch” and it’s fishing crews. 

Greater domestic retail demand, owing in large part to a popular cable television series, has led to solid markets continuing for wild Alaska red king crab in the early days of 2008.

“If you are a buyer and need king crab right now, I couldn’t tell you where to go and get it,” said Dave Keen, a wholesale crab marketer with the Crab Broker, a major domestic distributor of high-end seafood.

At this point, with the king crab season all but over in Alaska waters, if you don’t have a business relationship with one trader or another, it’s certain that you will not be able to buy No. 1 red king crab, Keen said Jan. 2.

The snow crab harvest, meanwhile, was underway in earnest in January, with a number of processors posting an advance price of $1.58 a pound, compared to about $1.50 a year ago, said Greg White, a negotiator for the Inter Cooperative Exchange, which represents the bulk of Bering Sea king and snow crab harvesters.

Since the king crab harvests began in mid-October, vessels have harvested nearly all of the allowable catch of about 20 million pounds of wild king crab, according to reports compiled by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The popularity of the domestic red king crab has been so greatly enhanced by the “Deadliest Catch” cable television series that one major restaurant chain will be adding the name of the vessel that harvested its entrees to its menu, Keen said.

After representatives of the Oceanaire chain met captains of the crab vessel Time Bandit, the Crab Broker was able to purchase for the chain crab harvested by the vessel, he said.

Oceanaire, which normally buys on a spot basis, placed a large order this year for frozen, as well as fresh king crab, Keen said, citing the contract as an example of the growing retail interest in wild Alaska king crab.

“Our business is selling crab throughout the year,” he said. “The season starts in mid-October. Last year we ran out of crab about a month and a half before the start of the new season. We are thinking that because of demand that we may run out again.”

Wholesale prices for the wild Alaska king crab are up about $1 a pound because of the higher demand.

This year buyers paid $8.95 for crab delivered to the dock in Seattle, compared to about $7.65 a pound a year ago, he said. If there had been more competition from Russian king crab from the Barent Sea, prices would have been lower for the Alaska crab.

With this year’s allowable snow crab quota at about 63 million pounds, compared to about 36 million pounds a year ago, White said he expected it to be a good season, despite diminished capacity in the processing sector.

“It will all get caught, because we got off to an early start,” he said.

Snow crab fisheries normally begin to pick up about Jan. 15, when the snow crab have good infill, and the fishing continues through May, White said.

Last year only about 17 percent of the harvest went to Japan, but White said he expected Japanese buyers to take a higher percentage this year.

“Sometimes the Japanese market is stronger; sometimes the U.S. is stronger,” he said.

While harvesters are not happy with the current posted advance price, “It’s a fair price to go fishing for,” he said.

Even with anticipated robust harvest, Alaska harvesters and processors are eager to produce as much as possible before May. The Eastern Canada snow crab fishery, which produces about 200 million pounds of snow crab, begins in April, and prices become more competitive as May approaches.

Posted on December 16, 2007 - by corny

Watch Capt. Phil on the Food Network Friday, December 21st!

Capt. Phil will be cooking up a storm with Paula Deen of the Food Nework, December 21st–this Friday at 9pm eastern and again at Midnight.  You won’t want to miss this one!

Paula’s Party
Episode IP0308

Risky Business Party
Paula Deen heads into the danger zone with three tough guys who do the riskiest jobs around. She puts up her dukes as she faces boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard and teaches him to make Body Blow Ribs.

Then Paula heads out to the rough seas with Captain Phil Harris from Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch, who shows her how real men eat crab with fried crab fritters.

To wrap up, Paula puts the pedal to the metal and turns up the heat with NASCAR driver Greg Biffle and her Blowtorch Steak with Bourbon Mushroom Sauce.

Posted on November 5, 2007 - by corny

Seattle Pacific Marine Expo

Will Capt. Phil make it back for the Pacific Marine Expo?  We sure hope so.  Hope some of you westcoasters can stop on over! (Pacific Marine Info) 

Deadliest Catch Captain’s Roundtable
Friday, November 16, 2007
2:30 pm
Keynote Area – Show Floor

Join us as we bring the hardworking, fun-loving Captains from Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch to the PME Roundtable.  Listen as they share stories of their harrowing ordeals and their lighter times on the Bering Sea.  Audience members will have ample opportunity to ask the Captains those questions they have always wanted answers to.  Of course, as you know, these are commercial fishermen and this is crab season, so if they have not captured their quota by show time, the number of Captains may be limited.

Invited: 
Capt. Sig Hansen, F/V Northwestern
Capt. Phil Harris, F/V Cornelia Marie
Capts Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand, F/V Time Bandit
Capt. Keith Colburn, F/V The Wizard
Capt. Greg Moncrief, F/V Farwest Leader
Capt. Blake Painter, F/V Maverick

Posted on October 30, 2007 - by corny

Capt. Phil at the Working Waterfront Festival in New Bedford, MA

Captain Phil made an appearance at the Bedford, MA. Working Waterfront Festival earlier this fall on September 22nd, along with Captain Johnathan Hillstrand.  They were both attending festivities in Dover, Delaware that weekend, but they managed to fly up to Bedford and make an appearance.  They had the opportunity to meet up with many fans and enjoyed the local “fishermen friendly” sights.  In the photos, Capt. Phil is looking at a fishing chart on the wall of the Seaman’s Bethel.  In the second one, both Capt. Phil and Capt Johnathan make a donation.  In the third photo, the skippers sign the guestbook at the Seaman’s Bethel.  Later, they both held a meet and greet session with fans and signed plenty of autograph’s.  The skippers had a great time in New Bedford. (Photos are courtesy of John Sladewski) 

Posted on October 28, 2007 - by corny

The Cornelia Marie was back in port over the weekend

Captain Phil and the crew arrived back in the Port of Dutch Harbor for the weekend.   Capt. Phil had his photo taken while doing his banking and the Cornelia Marie was looking good as usual. (photos courtesy of Robert & Lisa Omstead, Dutch Harbor resident photographers)

Posted on October 23, 2007 - by corny

Happy Birthday Jake!

Passing milestones while fishing out at sea is just one of those things that happens all the time with fishermen and that’s why we want to make sure and wish Jake a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  He just turned 22.  We hope the crew didn’t play too big of tricks on the birthday boy, but if they did, we’re also hoping we get to watch it on tv eventually!

Posted on October 21, 2007 - by corny

Capt. Phil on EW

Since Captain Phil is currently out at sea and hauling gear and crab as we speak, we thought it might be a good time to review some of the events and interviews that have taken place over the summer.

(photo courtesy of Justin Stephens)

EW.com had an interesting article, The EW 100–Stars We Love Right Now Capt. Phil was right there with Mike Rowe, Les Stroud, and Sig Hansen.  Why them?  EW responds, Whether it’s Stroud coping with the world’s harshest environments on Survivorman, Rowe tackling Dirty Jobs, or Alaskan king crab fishermen Hansen and Harris going after The Deadliest Catch, the quartet risk life, limb, and personal hygiene for our edutainment. (We’d have included Man vs. Wild’s Bear Grylls in the photo, too, if he weren’t climbing Everest!)

Posted on May 2, 2007 - by corny

BLOG POST FROM CORNELIA MARIE

“Hello from Cornelia. I just met with Captain Phil today in Anchorage. He spent a couple days back home in Washington, but is now on his way (more…)

Posted on April 13, 2007 - by corny

Hello, from Cornelia Marie

Hi, I am Cornelia. The boat was built in 1989 and it was named after me. I have been in the business (more…)

Posted on April 1, 2007 - by corny

Site Launched!

Welcome to the official site for the fishing vessel Cornelia Marie! (more…)