Iceland's Fishermen Balk on Labor Deal, Announce Strike That Again Threatens Cod Production  Iceland’s fishermen voted to go back on strike today after the country’s four major fishing unions rejected a collective bargaining agreement that was reached last month. This work stoppage could again threaten Iceland's fresh cod production and exports to the US market. For the US, fresh cod shipments from Iceland are up nearly 29 percent through October. The increase in fresh Icelandic cod to the market has been driven mainly by East Coast demand. Should the strike linger, it could impact US buyers that have become dependent on weekly air shipments of the fish. The 2016-17 Oregon Dungeness crab season is ready to go with a state-supervised negotiated price of $3 per pound to the boats. Crabbers can start setting gear Thursday, Dec. 15, south of Cape Blanco and begin delivering Sunday, Dec. 18, into Brookings or Port Orford. Pre-season “meat fill” tests used by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to ensure that quality and condition standards for the crab are met indicate that the quality of the crab this year is excellent. "We're glad to get the South Coast open and offer the high-quality crab we have in that area," Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission Director Hugh Link said. "We look forward to opening the rest of the state when we finish the current testing." In other news, Sernapesca has confirmed an outbreak of ISA in a farming center in the Aysen Region. Samples from the farm, owned by Cermaq, tested positive this week. Sernapesca is now conducting a thorough follow-up with the center and has activated a health campaign in to check all the farms involved. Meanwhile, Russia plans to continue to increase the volume of domestic crab production in the coming years, according to Russia's federal fishery officials at Rosrybolovstvo. According to predictions of Koblikov, the volume of crab production in Russia will grow by 2,000-3,000 tons annually during the next several years. That will be mainly due to the planned increase of catch of opilio crabs, that will mostly take place in the North Okhotsk subarea. This year the volume of crab production in the Russian Far East reached 47,000 tons, which is significantly higher than previous years. Finally, John Sackton writes about Bottlefish, a new seafood restaurant concept founded by Rick Rosenfield and Larry Flax, two former attorneys who founded the California Pizza Kitchen chain in 1985 and built that brand to more than 260 units before they retired. Rosenfield and Flax developed Bottlefish because they saw a need for more seafood-centric concepts in Los Angeles. “Our vision is to offer an elevated dining experience in a polished, exciting environment with high-quality, responsibly-sourced seafood, while remaining an approachable and comfortable neighborhood restaurant," the partners tell Sackton.