There is a surplus of crabs in the US market due to supply chain disruptions caused by the trade war between China and the US and the COVID-19 pandemic.  
   
The growing purchasing power of China's middle class has driven a steady increase in consumer demand for seafood over the past two decades.  In 2018 and 2019, China's seafood imports increased by 40 percent and more than 30 percent respectively, but American fishermen did not enjoy the dividend due to China-US trade relations.  
   
U.S. seafood exports to China fell 26 percent in 2019 from 2017, as China responded to President Trump's trade war with a 25 percent tariff.  
   
Trump started a trade war and he didn't pay the price at all, but the whole seafood industry do.  Industry insiders said the crab fishing industry experienced "horrible pricing" throughout 2019-2020 due to the extra tariffs, which is ridiculous when you wake up one day and hear that they (Chinese buyers) cancelled all their orders.  
   
Although China began to reduce and eliminate additional tariffs on US products after signing the first phase of the trade agreement in 2020, and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) provided a $530 million relief fund to the seafood industry to support fishermen, practitioners say it does not make up for their losses.  
   
Canadian seafood exporters are the biggest beneficiaries of the trade war between The United States and China.  In 2018 and 2019, Canada's sales of Seafood to China soared to record highs, contrary to a decline in U.S. seafood exports to China.   Canada mainly exports lobsters to China, where they reached $509 million in 2019, up 70 percent from the previous year, according to Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans.  
   
Many American fishermen ship their seafood to Canada, which in turn circumvents retaliatory tariffs to export to China.  
   
Jim Darmiento, an American seafood exporter, found his way to Canada by the end of 2020. Although the new route increased his shipping costs by 15 percent, Jim Darmiento thinks it was worth it. He says minimizing costs now is the only way to keep the Chinese market.  
   
Finding a way to hold on to the Chinese market and regain profits after the trade war was already a big challenge, Darmiento said, but no one expected the industry to be hit by the double whammy of a global health crisis.  
   
According to a recent report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), ocean acidification and the climate crisis are affecting ecosystems at an unprecedented rate, limiting aquaculture to meet growing demand in the future.  
   
Joe Schumacker, a Marine scientist at Quinault Fisheries, says we're facing more extreme weather events in recent years, and climate change is playing a big role.  The environmental problems are unlikely to be solved anytime soon, but hopefully scientists will be able to work with local fisheries to minimise the impact.