Editor-in-chief Tom Seaman brings you a roundup of the main stories from the previous week.

Our top story of last week was a scoop involving US-based Northline Seafoods, which plans to send a large freezer barge into the Alaska salmon fishery. 

The freezer barge Northline is preparing to send back to Alaska has at least $2.78 million in liens against it from contractors who helped refit the 400-foot vessel purpose-built to receive and store wild-caught salmon on Bristol Bay, Undercurrent News revealed last week. 

Also, over the weekend, Undercurrent revealed that processor OBI Seafoods informed its fleet last Friday (March 28) that its Egegik, Alaska, cannery will not be handling fish this summer. It's one of the first signs that salmon processors are responding to a concentration of ownership in Alaska's Bristol Bay.  

An email from OBI executive vice president Chris Pugmire to salmon harvesters signed up to fish for the company said it was reacting to inquiries following the closure of its deal with competing Silver Bay Seafoods, another Seattle, Washington-based company that has acquired a 50% stake in OBI. 

Similar to last year, the opening of the snow crab fishery in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) has turned into a drama.

The NL fishery will not open on Monday (April 1) as previously scheduled by Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Rather, it has been delayed for more than a week.

The soap-opera-like saga that has dogged preparations for the world's largest snow crab fishery, which has a record-breaking 62,883 metric tons quota for 2025, continued last Friday (March 28) when the Fish Food and Allied Workers (FFAW), the union representing inshore harvesters, said it had asked the province for another postponement in the price-setting process.

FFAW added a warning when it advised its members on Facebook on Friday that the process for setting dock prices in the Canadian province had been delayed.

"REMINDER: Foul language and personal attacks of any kind will not be tolerated," the FFAW said.

The words of caution seemed to have only a limited effect.

"Foul language won't be tolerated, but we're expected to tolerate what ye are throwing at us. Smarten up and get our fishery started or admit ye don't know what ye are doing and quit," harvester Calvin Young responded on the FFAW Facebook page.

Then, US wholesale haddock pricing moved sharply higher, both for twice-frozen and single-frozen product, in week 13. The looming expiration of the Section 301 tariff exemption for Chinese-processed haddock is a central concern, said UCN's Lorin Castiglione in her weekly groundfish sector wrap-up and price assessment. 

For more information on Undercurrent's week 13 US wholesale price assessments, covering Chilean salmon, crab, frozen lobster, farmed and wild shrimp, farmed whitefish, scallops and wild groundfish, click here. 

Also, on the topic of pricing, ex-vessel values for Norwegian king crab have dropped once again at auction, marking yet another week of value decline on the market. As for US wholesale prices, the market for Norwegian red king crab remains strong despite buyer resistance to elevated prices, driven by critically short supply and strong demand. 

You can click the links below for the rest of the most-read stories from last week. 

• Newfoundland snow crab fishery in mayhem again as season nears
• Maruha Nichiro to change name as part of new strategy
• Newfoundland snow crab harvesters, processors melt down over yet another season delay
• Argentina red shrimp freezer fleet's economic collapse looms as vessels stay docked
• Nissui appoints Teru Tanaka as new CEO
• Trump tariffs on China make 2x pollock fillets level with Alaskan single-frozen for US buyers
• Hofseth plans 2 more US refreshing facilities following initial success at Chicago plant
• Viciunai breaks ground on €100m new salmon plant
• Ecuador shrimp packers seek EU, US diversification from China price squeeze
• Global fishmeal shortage less than a decade away with more supply shocks likely, analyst warns