World Photo by Madeline Steege Crab boats wait in port in Charleston on Friday as crabbers are on strike. According to Scott Adams at Hallmark Fisheries in Charleston, some fishermen are fishing for the $1.50 price, but others are waiting for more.

Coastal crabbers tied up their boats Thursday and Friday, just as bad weather came onshore, in the hopes of getting a better price for their catch.

The season opened late and with a price of $1.35 a pound locally for good crab, Dungeness that had sufficient meat fill for market. It was a price about 20 cents less than they received at the opening of the 2004-05 season.

But a few days ago, processors raised the price to $1.50 a pound.

“Now they want $1.65,” Hallmark Fisheries production manager Scott Adams said.

Fishermen's organizations held conference calls Friday afternoon to discuss negotiating for better prices, but the whole issue comes down to supply.

“There's not the amount of crab on the grounds that was anticipated,” said Newport boat owner Terry Thompson.

Brookings boat owner Brad Pettinger agreed.

“It's highly cyclical. Last year was an anomaly,” Pettinger said.

Last year, Oregon crabbers landed more than 33 million pounds of crab, nearly double the previous record of 18 million pounds that was established during the 100 years or so of landings records. An average season is about 10 million pounds.

It was evident early on, despite the intermittent opportunities to get out on the water due to storms, that this season wasn't going to be a mirror of last year's record-setter, nor even the year before.

Some fishermen got a mere two to three crab per pot, Pettinger said, depending on where they fished.

Adams said that part of the frustration - for fishermen and crabbers - is the late start. All of the crab now is going in the freezer; very little is going to the fresh market.

“There's a limit to what we can process,” Adams said.

“We have some ports that are still fishing,” Adams continued. “Some boats are still putting out their gear.”

Most boats from Coos Bay north are tied up and not fishing, he and other processors said.

Seahawk Seafoods owner George Paynter said some of the boats were getting $1.50 a pound, but that yes, most are indeed at the dock instead of fishing.

“We'll see what happens when the weather clears,” he said with a chuckle.