Group petitions U.S. for switch to new crab gear

An Oakland conservation group has petitioned the federal government to outlaw traditional crab fishing gear it says injures too many endangered whales and sea turtles.

On Thursday morning, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a federal petition to require crab, lobster and other trap fisheries to transition away from traditional fishing pots and use what’s called ropeless or pop-up fishing gear in all U.S. waters.

While traditional crab and lobster pots use a long line that runs between the trap and a buoy at the water’s surface, the new gear is designed to work without lines that can entangle marine mammals. The petition calls for the change to go into effect within five years.

The Center for Biological Diversity has already taken legal action in California to protect whales and sea turtles from being injured in fishing gear used by Dungeness crab fishers. In 2017, the organization sued the state over the issue, saying deaths from entanglements were a violation of the Endangered Species Act. That led to a settlement that required greater protections for whales and sea turtles, including closing or delaying fishing seasons when there’s a risk of entanglements. The local commercial crab season was delayed this year, and several years previously, from its usual Nov. 15 start date for that reason.

“Sadly the entanglement problem isn’t limited to California. Whales and other animals are getting tangled up and killed in fishing gear off all of our coasts. So this petition asks the federal government to require the transition in all trap pot fisheries that interact with marine mammals,” said Kristen Monsell, oceans program litigation director for Center for Biological Diversity.

The organization’s 31-page federal petition, which is directed to the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Department of Commerce, targets California’s Dungeness crab fishery, New England’s lobster fishery and the stone crab fishery in the Gulf of Mexico, among others. If the agencies accept the petition, it would take a few years to be implemented, Monsell said. If they reject it, the Center for Biological Diversity could challenge that decision in court.

Fishing groups say that pop-up gear, which has never been used widely in commercial fishing, is too expensive and not yet ready for commercial use for Dungeness crab. It’s designed to keep the line in the water only a short time. Fishers drop their traps with a spool of rope that they can later summon to the surface with an acoustic signal; other versions use metal gadgets that dissolve in water over time and allow the line to bob to the surface.

Bodega Bay crabber Dick Ogg, who is on the state Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group, has tested the gear and said it would add hours to an already dangerous and grueling work day.

“Efficiency is the way we make our income,” Ogg said.

Ogg also said that whale entanglements in fishing gear on the West Coast have gone down after fishers improved their practices and the season has been shortened several times to protect whales. He pointed out that only one of the nine whale entanglements reported in California this year was related to commercial Dungeness crab gear, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. The others involved traps used for other types of seafood, including box crabs and spot prawns.

The limited fishing seasons have had a financial impact on commercial crab fishing. The amount of Dungeness crab brought in to San Francisco dropped from 5.3 million pounds in 2016 to 1.9 million pounds in 2019, with a reduction of $10 million in sales, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Earlier this year, the Center for Biological Diversity co-sponsored a bill that would have required pop-up gear in trap pot fishing in California,

but it did not advance in state legislation.

Monsell said a federal requirement to use the new fishing gear would incentivize technological advancements.

“Frankly, no whales should be entangled,” she said. “Change is hard but that doesn’t mean change shouldn’t happen.”