Letters: Alaska Crab fishermen dispute harm of Russian ban, say it would clean up IUU crab
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Letters] Sept. 2, 2014
To the Editor:
Mr. Sackton, I respectfully think your video on 8/27/14 was flawed and missed some important points regarding the King Crab market and its potential “destruction” if a retaliatory ban on Russian seafood was implemented by the US government.
Your point on pure marketing theory has merit, but when you discuss “devastating the King Crab market”, you should consider the fact that the market is already wrecked now by allowing large quantities of illegal Russian crab into the market. This illegal crab increases supply and artificially decreases market prices paid to honest Alaskan crab fishermen and processors.
As Alaska crab fishermen our noses have already been cut off despite our faces for the last 20 years, enduring huge quantities of illegal Russian crab into the United States and the world, costing fishermen, processors and the State of Alaska over $600 million (estimated by the McDowell Group, Inc. for the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers) in lost revenue, just since the year 2000’.
Last year Russia exported...
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