Seafood

The West Coast seafood industry is caught in the crosshairs of tariff uncertainty. Oregon industry and government officials asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to step in and lessen damage to the industry.

The Oregon coast is bountiful with seafood like lingcod, Chinook salmon and Dungeness crabs. Most of it is exported to domestic or international markets. But the tide might be turning. A group says there's increasing demand for local seafood. With pent-up demand, the group is turning to high schoolers to bolster the seafood workforce.

The commercial Dungeness Crab season is now underway for part of the Oregon Coast, and the timing is good for holiday meals.

The EPA has fined a seafood company nearly $1 million for water pollution near the Oregon and Washington coasts.

Shellfish growers in Willapa Bay in southwest Washington, the self-styled "Oyster Capital of the World," are alarmed by an invasion of potentially destructive nonnative European green crabs. Some are asking for an all-out trapping offensive to corral the invasive species.

The 2022 Dungeness crab season was the most lucrative in Oregon history. Unusually for recent years, it started on time, yields were high and prices soared, leading to a boon for commercial crabbers and the coastal communities that depend on them.

The coronavirus pandemic has sent shock waves through Oregon's $700 million seafood industry as mandatory restaurant closures have cut off a vital market and sent prices plummeting.