After months of delay, the two shirts voted on by our fans in the forum are now a reality and for sale in the Cornelia Marie Online store.

Discovery Channel already started showing the shows from last year to lead up to the new episode on April 15th. Get your shirt now, before the first show begins.

We found out over the weekend that the 184 foot, F/V Alaska Ranger sunk about 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor early Sunday morning. Our prayers go out to the families. One of the four people who lost their lives was the Captain, Eric Peter Jacobsen, 65, of Lynnwood, Wash

KIRO TV in Seattle interviewed the Captains adult children. News story here.

They said there must have been something terribly wrong for a boat of that size to sink and they would like to know the details. Yes, I agree. The weather was not rough and something strange must have happened for them to take on water so fast. Usually, when a boat takes on water - there is enough time to be rescued before having to abandon ship.

The F/V Alaska Ranger was a factory trawler and not one of the fishing boat in the F/V Cornelia Marie crab fishing fleet. This was a large vessel with 47 people on board. It drags a large net (trawl) from the stern of the vessel to catch its fish. Once caught, the fish are processed and frozen right there aboard the ship. These guys stay out at sea for along time and it’s not an easy job.

More details can be found here.

Our own deckhand, Jake Harris does some promoting for the new XBOX 360 game, Alaskan Storm. You have to admit, the other guy from the F/V Northwestern looks a little freaky. Click on more to watch video. (more…)

The title of the game is, “Deadliest Catch Alaskan Storm”. It’s an immersive and challenging experience, putting the players at the helm of one the world’s most dangerous jobs — that of a crab boat captain in the icy Bering Sea.

“Deadliest Catch Alaskan Storm” lets gamers captain their own boat in the frenzied search for an undersea jackpot. Gamers select one of five real crab boats, including the Northwestern, Cornelia Marie and Sea Star — all featured on the series, or create and customize their own boat. Gamers then recruit and lead their own crew from a roster of twenty real crab fishermen; including Captain Phil, Jake and Josh Harris.

Selecting the wrong boat or recruiting the wrong crew member can mean the difference between landing a Bering Sea jackpot or disaster. Lead your fatigued, hungry and hardworking crew in the strategic search for King Crab and Opilio Crab, while battling to secure your catch and livelihood before other captains and crews get to the crab first. Of course, you best bet is to go with the F/V Cornelia Marie and it’s crew!

For more information, check out the Discovery website and greenwave games.

We have set up a F/V Cornelia Marie Fan Page at Facebook.com. You can check out the group and site up here. If you don’t have a Facebook account, it’s very easy to sign up.

The Opilio Crab season has officially opened in the F/V Cornelia Marie crew are now fishing in the Bering Sea. This is the kind of crab commonly referred to as “Snow Crab” in markets and restaurants.

King crab demand going strong thanks to the popularity of “Deadliest Catch” and it’s fishing crews. 

Greater domestic retail demand, owing in large part to a popular cable television series, has led to solid markets continuing for wild Alaska red king crab in the early days of 2008.

“If you are a buyer and need king crab right now, I couldn’t tell you where to go and get it,” said Dave Keen, a wholesale crab marketer with the Crab Broker, a major domestic distributor of high-end seafood.

At this point, with the king crab season all but over in Alaska waters, if you don’t have a business relationship with one trader or another, it’s certain that you will not be able to buy No. 1 red king crab, Keen said Jan. 2.

The snow crab harvest, meanwhile, was underway in earnest in January, with a number of processors posting an advance price of $1.58 a pound, compared to about $1.50 a year ago, said Greg White, a negotiator for the Inter Cooperative Exchange, which represents the bulk of Bering Sea king and snow crab harvesters.

Since the king crab harvests began in mid-October, vessels have harvested nearly all of the allowable catch of about 20 million pounds of wild king crab, according to reports compiled by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The popularity of the domestic red king crab has been so greatly enhanced by the “Deadliest Catch” cable television series that one major restaurant chain will be adding the name of the vessel that harvested its entrees to its menu, Keen said.

After representatives of the Oceanaire chain met captains of the crab vessel Time Bandit, the Crab Broker was able to purchase for the chain crab harvested by the vessel, he said.

Oceanaire, which normally buys on a spot basis, placed a large order this year for frozen, as well as fresh king crab, Keen said, citing the contract as an example of the growing retail interest in wild Alaska king crab.

“Our business is selling crab throughout the year,” he said. “The season starts in mid-October. Last year we ran out of crab about a month and a half before the start of the new season. We are thinking that because of demand that we may run out again.”

Wholesale prices for the wild Alaska king crab are up about $1 a pound because of the higher demand.

This year buyers paid $8.95 for crab delivered to the dock in Seattle, compared to about $7.65 a pound a year ago, he said. If there had been more competition from Russian king crab from the Barent Sea, prices would have been lower for the Alaska crab.

With this year’s allowable snow crab quota at about 63 million pounds, compared to about 36 million pounds a year ago, White said he expected it to be a good season, despite diminished capacity in the processing sector.

“It will all get caught, because we got off to an early start,” he said.

Snow crab fisheries normally begin to pick up about Jan. 15, when the snow crab have good infill, and the fishing continues through May, White said.

Last year only about 17 percent of the harvest went to Japan, but White said he expected Japanese buyers to take a higher percentage this year.

“Sometimes the Japanese market is stronger; sometimes the U.S. is stronger,” he said.

While harvesters are not happy with the current posted advance price, “It’s a fair price to go fishing for,” he said.

Even with anticipated robust harvest, Alaska harvesters and processors are eager to produce as much as possible before May. The Eastern Canada snow crab fishery, which produces about 200 million pounds of snow crab, begins in April, and prices become more competitive as May approaches.