Crab-less Christmas

Alber Seafood processing has halted for now

Jesus Virde places part of a final shipment of crab into a package Tuesday at Alber Seafoods. Del Norte Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

A price-based strike delayed crabs from the Bay Area, and now tests showing thin crabs have postponed the crab season on the North Coast — both affecting a local crab processor.

The crew at Alber Seafoods in the Crescent City Harbor started processing almost two weeks later than usual because of the Bay delay, and now it must “wait and see” when another shipment of crab can bring more work, said plant manager Brigg Lindsey.

“I hate it that the holidays fall right around this time of year because everybody needs a little extra jingle in their pocket,” Lindsey said. “But you can’t rush the crab.”

Lindsey and local fishermen alike understand the need for the delay to get the best product, but that doesn’t make it any easier on the pocketbook.

“A bad product at the start is going to end up as a bad product, and nobody wants to buy crab at a restaurant that’s empty,” Lindsey said.

Nature just doesn’t follow a human calendar, he added.

The local plant processed around 80,000 pounds of Bay Area crabs in the last two weeks, requiring two shifts of workers. But the plant shipped the last load of processed crab this week, leaving just a skeleton crew to keep the facility ready. It’s unclear when the next truck of crabs will come and where it will be from.

Although crabs are still coming into Alber Seafoods main distribution facility at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf, right now it’s not enough to haul to Crescent City.

“Since the volume dropped, it’s not worth it to pay that much in diesel to go all the way down there to just get a small dab and bring it all the way back,” Lindsey said.

When the Central Coast season opens, the large initial catch warrants using the Crescent City plant, but otherwise Alber often sells live crab or uses outside processors in the Bay Area, Lindsey said.

Hermia Ferrer washes processed crab before it’s packaged for shipping. Del Norte Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

The local plant receives live crabs in refrigerated trucks. Workers throw them on conveyor belts where they are broken apart and separated from guts and other undesirable parts. The good stuff goes into baskets — 25 pounds per container.

After crabs thoroughly cook in large cookers, cold water pushes up through the cooker to stop the cooking process.

Crabs then get chilled in a 3-degree slush ice tank for 20–30 minutes, followed by another 30 minutes in a 1-degree brine tank for flavor. From there crabs are packaged and loaded on another refrigerated truck for shipment.

As Alber’s only processor, the Crescent City plant ships crabs all over the West Coast, as far as Seattle and Los Angeles.

Usually the local plant only processes crabs from the Bay Area and the North Coast. This year’s down time, however, has Alber looking into taking catches from the farther north, but “there are a lot of variables,” Lindsey said, adding that he’d like to have work for his employees.

“They just have to hold on,” he said. “Pinch their pennies until the season does bust loose, just like the fishermen.”

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