NEWPORT, Ore. (AP) — Crab season on the Oregon coast is set to start Wednesday. And crews could be out already, setting gear ahead of the season opening. But because fishermen and processors haven’t yet agreed on prices, the crab boats are still docked.
Nick Furman is executive director of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission. He says fishermen are “honoring the price negotiation process right now and waiting to set gear until there is some resolution.”
With the Oregon Agriculture Department overseeing them, the two sides have scheduled another round of talks before the season officially opens.
The Oregonian says that in the past seven years since negotiations began, there have been two seasons — 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 — that processors and the fleet failed to reach an agreement. Both years, the fleet stayed in port well past opening day,
