Alaska Fishermen Tapping Into New Market: Snails

UNALASKA, Alaska - Three commercial fishermen in Unalaska are pursuing a new catch - snails. The three vessels have landed more than 318,000 pounds of snails, not including the weight of the shells, in what could be an up-and-coming fishery.

Boats didn't begin going after the snails until two months ago, said Skip Gish, assistant area biologist for the Dutch Harbor office of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Gish considers snailing "an up-and-coming fishery." Because it is so new to U.S. fishermen, the snail fishery still has no guideline harvest level, he said.

Little information is available to stock managers about the life history of snails, said Gish, and Fish and Game doesn't have enough financing to study the fishery in-depth.

"Most of the boats are crabbers looking for something to do in the off-season," he said. "They're not making the real big bucks that they are making during crab, but if they were losing money, they would have to quit."

Fishermen can retain any kind of snail except the Hairy Triton, which carries a pathogen in its salivary glands that can kill a person if eaten. Paralytic shellfish poisoning also can be a problem in snails.

The most commonly caught snail is the Neptunea pribiloffensis. It is found in the deeper, "warmer" waters along the edge of the continental shelf and makes up, on average, 70 percent of a catch.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation requires permits from processors and the boats that harvest the snails. Vessels also are required to have a special permit from Fish and Game.

Boats use a variation of the traditional Japanese snail pot. It is similar to a circular hair crab pot, but with a finer mesh netting.

This is the second year Royal Aleutian Seafoods in Unalaska has been processing snails.

Trident Seafoods in Akutan and the UniSea Barge in St. Paul also have recently obtained permits.