Bering Sea Snow Crab Season Going Slow  Fishermen are having the toughest time in the past five years finding snow crab, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, in Unalaska. The fleet of 60 crab boats has caught 74 percent of the quota in the Bering Sea according to ADF&G biologist Ethan Nichols. But based on the number of crab in an average pot, the catch has plummeted. Meanwhile, Alaskan crabbers and their allies in the Pribilof Islands say a hybrid should be considered part of the catch of whatever the fishermen are targeting, whether Tanner bairdi or Tanner opilio. "The mixed physical characteristics make it extremely difficult to identify hybrid Tanner crab in a quick and efficient manner, especially during active fishing operations," the crab group said. A Washington state fish buyer, Pacific Harvest Seafood, intends to bring a processing vessel to Bethel and park it at the seawall during the late summer silver salmon run in the Kuskokwim River and in the Kuskokwim Bay according to Pacific Harvest Seafood's President Jim Gonzalez. The Renton-based company also will run a tender to go back and forth between the fishing village of Quinhagak on Kuskokwim Bay to the self-sustained floating processor In other news, the Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador (FISH-NL) is calling for an independent, external review of the management and science capabilities of Canada's federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) in relation to the reported dramatic decline of key stocks off Newfoundland and Labrador. The request for review follows recent federal stock assessments for Newfoundland's coldwater shrimp and snow crab fisheries, which each showed poor biomass results. Meanwhile, Red Lobster is expanding its Lobsterfest promotion to its lunch menu with the addition of a Maine lobster roll among other lunchtime offerings that feature Maine lobster. Last week, we reported how the value of Maine lobster landings reached a record high in 2016 from unprecedented demand in US and Chinese markets. In the United States, the restaurant sector has featured more lobster meat items on menus in recent years and Red Lobster's lunch special is one such example. The lunchtime offerings will retail for $9.99 at participating locations. Finally, the FDA issued more seafood refusal data for the month of February over the weekend, which showed by line item refusals more in line with historical averages but on the decline compared to 2016. According to the data, refusals from China were the highest among all suppliers to the US market in February. Filth remains on the FDA’s radar accounting for 40 percent of the month’s seafood rejections. However, FDA seafood refusals in 2017 are trending below last year’s levels so far.