Unalaska, AK – Most Bering Sea crab fishermen are still refusing to leave Dutch Harbor to drop pots, as negotiations between their harvesting cooperatives and crab processors made little headway today.

Although most processing company representatives were either unavailable or unwilling to comment on the negotiations this afternoon, co-op representatives said that a third processing company, Ocean Beauty, agreed to raise their advance price to $3.65, which Alyeska and Westward Seafoods have already offered. But four processors are still asking for a lower price, which the co-ops say they won't accept.

Greg White, a negotiator for the Inter-Cooperative Exchange who is representing the crab co-ops, says that the prices that some processors are suggesting amount to a 33 percent drop from last season's price.

"We think that's a much more significant drop than there actually was in the marketplace, and we view this as an abuse of the rationalization process," White said, referring to the crab rationalization program that began in the Bering Sea last season.

Since the king crab season opened at noon on Sunday, the processors and co-op representatives have met twice to hammer out an agreement, but neither discussion has been successful. White says they'll talk again Wednesday afternoon.