May 6, 2020 โ Numerous meat processing plants have closed, leaving ranchers with nowhere to bring their livestock and fearing that the animals may be sold at drastically reduced prices or euthanized. A surplus in dairy and vegetables has forced farmers to dump their milk and throw out or plow under their crops. Fishermen catching sablefish, halibut and black cod are now left without restaurants โ their biggest market โ to buy their food, as others waiting to catch king salmon and albacore wonder whether itโs even worth going out to fish when the season opens in July.
In Sitka, Alaska, itโs the height of the longline fishing season for halibut and black cod, and Linda Behken, executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermenโs Association, has been working hard to keep her members informed on the latest regarding COVID-19.
โI would say itโs about the most exhausting month Iโve ever been through since Iโve been running [the association],โ said Behnken, whose organization represents about 130 vessel owners. โJust the worry about our fleet immediately and in the long-term.โ
Behnken says prices for halibut and black cod have already dropped 60% relative to recent years in large part because restaurants have closed. She expects similar price drops in king salmon when that season opens in a limited capacity in July.
โMost Americans eat their seafood at restaurants, and with restaurants closed, that higher volume, higher quality product is where we really lost markets. So the impact to the fishermen has been really significant,โ Behnken said.
Behnken said a lot of people are fishing anyway, โhoping that prices will improve.โ
For some fishermen, however, the risk of losing money is too high. Californiaโs commercial salmon season began on Friday, but Mike Conroy, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermenโs Associations, says that with the markets โupendedโ and 75% of California salmon purchased by restaurants, many fishermen might not go through the trouble of fishing.