Crescent City Profile - California Sea Grant

Figure 3. Pathways of seafood landed at CrescentCity Harbor. Note: Thicker arrows indicate mostcommon pathways.Product forms vary within and across fisheries(Table 4). Most whiting, groundfish and crabis processed on a relatively large scale locally.Live crab, coonstripe shrimp and rockfishhave become more common over the pastdecade, largely due to growing demand in theSan Francisco Bay area. Small amounts ofgroundfish and crab are processed on a smallscale (e.g., as groundfish fillets) in the CrescentCity area for local and regional distribution.One local buyer sells to the public during crabseason (winter), and a handful of albacoretrollers sell directly to consumers (through offthe-boatsales) during the late summer and fall.Ocean Recreational FishingDecades ago, “salmon was king,” and for studyparticipants, it still is. In addition, anglerstarget albacore, groundfish (i.e., rockfish andlingcod, Ophiodon elongates), and Dungenesscrab. Private boat fishing has long been thedominant mode of ocean recreational fishinghere. For a period of 4 to 5 years in the late1990s, Crescent City had no charter operations.Then in 2000, the Tally Ho II began operations.Although equipped to carry up to 14 fishingpassengers or 20 whale watching passengers,it currently operates primarily as a ‘six-pack’,carrying no more than six fishing passengersreportedly because of the limited availabilityof crew. The operator describes his clienteleas 15% local (within Del Norte County) and85% nonlocal, coming primarily from inlandcommunities throughout California, Arizonaand outside the US. 18As with commercial fisheries, the seasonalityof Crescent City’s recreational fisheries (Table5) is defined by resource availability, weatherand regulations, and is often more compressedand variable than indicated in the table. Forinstance, the availability of albacore varieswidely from year to year. The salmon fisheryin California’s KMZ is open only for a subsetof days in some months in order to extend thelength of the season; it was completely closedin 2008 and open for only 10 days in 2009.The groundfish fishery, which was open yearroundthrough the early 2000s, has not openeduntil May in recent years and has also beenTable 4. Product forms, processing location and destination of seafood landed at Crescent City Harbor.Fishery Product forms Processing location MarketsCoonstripe shrimp Live n/a San Francisco Bay areaDungeness crabCooked whole &sectioned, picked and Crescent City, Eureka, Other West Coast Local to nationwidecanned, liveGroundfish Whole, filet, liveCrescent City, Eureka, Fort Bragg, OtherWest CoastLocal to overseasPink shrimp Picked and canned Eureka State to nationwideSalmon Whole, filet, steak Eureka, Fort Bragg, Other West Coast Local to nationwidePacific whiting Filet, head/gut, surimi Crescent City (little), Other West Coast OverseasCrescent City Fishing Community Profile 13