Dungeness crab season now pushed to Dec. 16
Dungeness crab season is delayed yet again. On Tuesday, the state announced that the commercial crab fishing season from Point Arena in Mendocino County to the Mexican border would be pushed back a second time, to Dec. 16, to prevent endangered whales from getting entangled and injured in fishing gear.
The state had already delayed the opening of the season from Nov. 15 to Dec. 1 for the same reason, disappointing Bay Area seafood lovers, who traditionally like to have Dungeness crab on Thanksgiving, and the local crab fishing fleet, which makes most of its income from the busy Thanksgiving and holiday season. Because of new rules established this month, the state has the authority to close certain fishing areas when there is evidence of a certain number of humpback whales, blue whales or Pacific leatherback sea turtles in crab fishing areas.
Recent aerial surveys have shown that there are still whales in fishing grounds, California Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Charlton H. Bonham said in a statement announcing the latest delay. The state also recently announced it would delay the Dungeness crab season in the northern region, from Mendocino County north to Del Norte County, from Dec. 1 to Dec. 16, but the reason was different: Crabs in that area failed meat quality tests, or basically didn’t grow meaty enough to catch.
“Our hope is both quality testing and additional marine life survey data will support a unified statewide opener on Dec. 16, just in time to have crab for the holidays and New Year,” Bonham said in the statement.
The marine animals began staying in fishing zones more often starting with the marine heat wave, sometimes known as “the blob,” that began in 2014, and started getting entangled in the lines that connect crab pots to buoys at the ocean’s surface. That led to a lawsuit from the an Oakland environmental
group Center for Biological Diversity in 2017, which caused the state to take stronger action to prevent the injuries.
In a recent statement, the Center for Biological Diversity said it welcomed new protections for endangered marine mammals but said the state should do still more to prevent their injuries and deaths.
Though entanglements have decreased in recent years, last year the season was delayed for similar reasons until Dec. 15.
Larry Collins of the San Francisco Community Fishing Association expressed frustration with the continued delays, while acknowledging the need to prevent entanglements, which he said the fleet has worked hard to do.
“We’ve been fishing alongside the whales for 100 years and the only time we had a problem was when we had ‘the blob’ here,” he said. “This fleet needs to catch a break. We’re not getting it from our state
“This fleet needs to catch a break. We’re not getting it from our state Legislature, that’s for sure.” Larry Collins, San Francisco Community Fishing Association Legislature, that’s for sure.”
The department said it would do more flyover surveys to check on the presence of whales in early December and then will announce whether fishing can indeed start Dec. 16.