Oregon Commercial Fishing in 2014, April 10

Report from the Oregon Employment Dept. In 2014 Oregon’s commercial fishing industry hauled in the third-highest annual revenue in the past ten years-after adjusting for inflation. Total landed value was about $156 million, down from a record-setting $182 million the year before. The decrease was mainly due to the Dungeness crab harvest falling to a below-normal level. A few other fisheries had increases that helped to offset the loss, but overall revenue and landed volume were down for the year. Crab harvests in 2014 fell to about 12 million pounds, one of the worst harvests in recent years. In response, ex-vessel prices rose to a record $4.03 per pound, up from $2.73 per pound in 2013. The crab harvest was worth about $48 million in 2014 versus $71 million the year before. Oregon’s Dungeness crab was certified as sustainable in 2010 and remains Oregon’s most valuable fishery. Salmon landings rose sharply in 2014 to 6.4 million pounds – a threefold increase in two years. Prices remained fairly high at $3.14 per pound, so the total landed value rose 60 percent from the previous year. The pink shrimp harvest was 52 million pounds, an increase of nine percent from 2013.It was a record and the first time the harvest has topped 50 million pounds. Shrimp prices went up as well so total value landed hit $29 million. Oregon pink shrimp was certified as a sustainable fishery by the Marine Stewardship Council in 2007 and reassessed as sustainable in 2011. Harvests and prices for the past four years have been fairly stable. The amount of whiting landed was nearly unchanged in 2014 at 168 million pounds. That is more than half of all wild seafood landed in Oregon. Prices dipped to 11 cents per pound so total landed value for this fishery fell by about $2 million to $18 million total – still well above the average for recent years. The value of groundfish landed was also little changed in 2014 at $21 million. The amount landed actually decreased almost three million pounds, but a rise in prices helped offset the loss. Albacore tuna suffered 31 percent decrease in total value landed in 2014 to $11 million. The harvest fell about 14 percent and, and the price inched dropped to $1.26 per pound. Albacore has become an important fishery in recent years, especially for smaller boats that depended on salmon. Pacific sardine landings fell heavily for the second year in a row. The harvest was down about 70 percent and was the lowest since 1999. A near doubling of the price was not enough to keep the landed value from falling 44 percent to $3.5 million. The sardine quota was reduced sharply for 2013 and 2014 due to concerns about a decline in stocks. Some smaller fisheries had notable changes. The mackerel harvest, which fluctuates greatly, jumped 550 percent for jack mackerel and 170 percent for Pacific mackerel. The total mackerel harvest topped 4 million pounds. The harvest of hagfish, also known as slime eels, dropped by 30 percent. The meat is often exported to Korea, where it is considered a delicacy, and the skin can be cured as leather. Although the red sea urchin harvest fell nearly 25 percent in 2014, some other mollusks, notably cockle and gaper clams, were harvest more heavily.