Crabbers go to court

The Inter-Cooperative Exchange, a cooperative of Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands crab fishermen, is suing the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Here's the 15-page lawsuit.

ICE is seeking the release of agency records, including text messages and the like, related to the crab price arbitration system.

The suit indicates a NMFS official took a stance that could tilt the arbitration system in favor of crab processors. ICE, with its suit, is demanding agency records that might shed light on the matter.

The arbitration system is "so critical to ICE members receiving a fair price for crab," the suit says.

MSC urges arbitration in salmon dispute

As we observed last month, Alaska's major salmon processors are having trouble rejoining the Marine Stewardship Council certification program.

That's because a group of generally smaller processors, led by Silver Bay Seafoods, holds the MSC certificate for Alaska salmon and appears unwilling to share it.

A recent attempt to settle the matter through mediation has failed.

Now the MSC is urging binding arbitration. And the organization is asking Alaska's governor to help bring the two sides to an arbitration proceeding.

Here's an exchange of correspondence laying out the situation:

Gov. Bill Walker letter to the MSC
MSC Chief Executive Rupert Howes reply

Economist: Crab revolution favored fishermen

Here's a new academic paper that's sure to stir some crabby conversation.

Scott Matulich, a Washington State University economics professor, wrote the paper for the journal Marine Resource Economics.

It argues that crab rationalization, the 2005 management overhaul that divided the Bering Sea crab fisheries into individual catch shares as well as unprecedented processor shares, upset the balance between crabbers and processors.

The bottom line, according to Matulich: The processors got screwed.

Looking at just the important Bristol Bay red king crab fishery, he calculates the "gross value" of the individual fishing quota (IFQ) is $436 million, while the individual processing quota (IPQ) gross value is under $24 million.

Matulich argues the crab rationalization program's arbitration feature, designed to settle price and other disputes, has disadvantaged the processors.

"Seven price arbitrations have occurred since policy implementation," Matulich writes. "All were won by harvesters."

I'm not an economist, so I'll leave the peer review of this paper to others more qualified.

I will say this: My understanding was that the price arbitrations were confidential. I've never been able to get my hands on the outcome of one. So if Professor Matulich has seen enough to conclude the crabbers always win, Deckboss would sure like to see it, too.