Market Report

When spring flowers start to bloom and winter storms fade into memory, catches of many of our favorite fish start to pick up and prices fall from their lofty winter perches.

Out in the Pacific Northwest, the first fresh halibut and sablefish (a.k.a. black cod) from Alaska hit the market and while not exactly a bargain, they are a welcome addition to your local fishmonger’s case.

But if you’re looking for a bargain on fresh fish these days, your best bet is to try a fish that – like Rodney Dangerfield – doesn’t get any respect. Take Atlantic pollock, for example. Stocks of this member of the extended cod family have rebounded to historic highs and New England fishermen are still getting just $.25 a pound for their pollock – the same price they got when diesel fuel was less than $.50 a gallon. So why is pollock so cheap? The main reason is that even though its flesh cooks up white, in the raw state it is an unappetizing gray. That’s enough of a turnoff for tradition bound New Englanders who are willing to pay three or four times as much for a snow white cod or haddock fillet (and never mind that that “fresh” cod fillet was actually cut from fish caught and frozen off Alaska). Still, a savvy seafood savant will try the pollock, which the seafood industry likes to peddle under the amusing sobriquets of blue snapper or Boston bluefish.

The smaller sizes of farmed white shrimp, which are also often on sale at under $5 a pound, are also still a good buy, as wholesale prices have hardly changed over the past four years.

After some record years, it appears that catches of Maine lobster are in a fairly rapid decline. Last year’s catch, which was off 23 percent from the previous year, was the lowest in 10 years, which has pushed prices up. The fact that the U.S. dollar continues to slide against the Euro also means more lobster is flying across the Atlantic, where they may well end up in a pot in a fancy French restaurant. Nevertheless, there’s a brief window of relatively good deals on lobster in May, when the Canadian fishery in the Gulf of St. Lawrence opens and heavy landings normally overwhelm the live market.

After several years of bumper catches, this year’s West Coast Dungeness crab fishery was once again back to more normal levels at the same time demand from live buyers as far away as China continues to grow, driving up prices. That means Dungeness processors put up very few frozen clusters for retailers. The best deal on frozen crab will be in May, when the first production from this year’s Atlantic Canada snow crab fishery hits the stores.

Wild king salmon from the West Coast could be a very, very scarce commodity this spring and summer. Fisheries managers are considering not even opening this year’s troll fishery off Oregon and California to protect the stocks from the Sacramento River, which have suddenly declined to very low levels. Kings from Alaska will be relatively plentiful, however, those fish won’t hit the Lower 48 in any volume until June. This year’s Alaska salmon forecast predicts a big sockeye catch, but don’t look for those fish until late May and June.

Meanwhile, supplies of farmed Atlantic salmon are relatively tight as farmers in Chile, the main source of farmed salmon for the U.S. market, are having production problems. So don’t be surprised if the retail price of farmed fillets jumps a dollar or so a pound this spring.

So what are some really good buys? Scallops are still a fair deal, especially the smaller sizes. Bay scallops from China, which we now feature in our growing Simply Seafood line, are a great value at less than $5 a pound in most retail markets. The smaller sizes of farmed white shrimp , which are also often on sale at under $5 a pound, are also still a good buy, as wholesale prices have hardly changed over the past four years.