A Kodiak crab quota lease would guarantee boats Unalaska-level prices

Kodiak crab boats that deliver to Royal Aleutian Seafoods next season would have to be paid at least as much as Unalaska processors pay, under a lease the Kodiak Fisheries Development Association board takes up at 9 am Thursday.

The association holds individual processing quota, the poundage a processor must hold to take crab in the rationalized Bering Sea fisheries. Whoever leases that quota decides which boats get matched to it and paid. Last season the shares yielded about 233,800 pounds, mostly Bristol Bay red king crab and Western Bering Sea Tanner, with smaller Eastern Bering Sea Tanner and opilio allocations. St. Matthews blue king crab produced none, because that fishery was closed.

The motion before the board would accept Royal Aleutian's proposal and tell the company the association wants Kodiak harvesters share-matched with the quota, a requirement it would add to future solicitations. It would reject a competing bid from Pacific Seafoods, which the packet says does not meet the solicitation's requirements and leaves too much uncertainty.

The terms also address dead loss, the share of crab that arrives dead. Kodiak deliveries would be treated as having a rate no higher than Unalaska's, so boats bear no extra penalty for running to Kodiak. The solicitation prefers Kodiak processing but does not require it.

Kodiak can buy and lease processing quota under federal crab rationalization, with the association serving as the community's eligible entity. It finalized a $300,000 quota purchase from Ocean Beauty and BBEDC in July, paid Ocean Beauty about $59,700 in August, and has roughly $66,200 left for more purchases.

Any award still depends on a signed lease.