California regulators closing commercial crab season in April, 2 months early

The commercial Dungeness crab fishing season will net a shorter season, with the state announcing the end along the California coast on April 8. The finish to a season that started late comes almost two months shorter than planned.

The announcement was made Friday by the California Department Fish & Wildlife in response to two humpback whales caught in netting off the San Francisco Peninsula and Monterey Bay earlier in the month.

Crab fishermen like Dick Ogg, who works out of Bodega Bay off the Sonoma Coast, had a heads up and already took his gear out of the water, along with others.

“We got ahead of the game,” Ogg told the Business Journal shortly after the announcement. “We did not want to have any more problems with (the whales).”

Ogg plans to turn his attention and the direction of his boat to salmon when that season is intended to open in May.

For crabbers, the hard luck is the latest in a series of hardships over the last seven years. Twenty-two entanglements were reported at their peak six years ago by the National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Between government demands spawned by environmental lawsuit threats, gear upgrades, contaminated crustaceans from algae blooms and the ongoing issue of a whale population growing by 8% every year to more than 20,000, the news is hard to swallow in a year in which the wholesale price was up by $8 to $10 per pound for their catches. In recent years, the price has dropped to $5 per pound.

“This is really going to impact people who normally like to fish to the very end,” Ogg said, adding it’s hard to quantify the losses the working crabbers will experience.

Plus, the season started late, missing the Christmas crunch and opening just in time for New Year’s feasts.

“They didn’t get a lot of a crab season, but no one wants to jeopardize the next season, and other seasons could be affected down the road,” said Ben Platt with the California Crab Fishermens Association. Platt hopes the state will address the issue and open up more opportunities for the crabbers hurting by not much time spent on the water.

“It’s unfortunate. It’s going to be tough. This time of year is good. But I think (the fishermen) were cognizant of what could happen,” said Mike Conroy, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. “Even though there’s clearly a financial impact by this, because we’re good stewards of the environment, we know this is a new environment we’re operating in.”

Ryan Bartling, chief scientist in marine division of the Fish and Wildlife service, commended the crabbers for being proactive.

“To their credit, they were made aware of entanglements, and the fleet got together and agreed to start pulling up their gear,” he said.

Bartling noted the gray whales that pass through Bay Area waters on their journey between their nesting grounds in Baja and Alaska are approaching “their peak.” The humpbacks view the Bay Area as “their summer vacation destination,” so entanglements may occur and pose risks for the mammals and the crabbers’ gearing.

Until April 8, Fish and Wildlife is asking that fishermen keep an eye out for the whales. Reports may be made at 877-SOS-WHALE or through contact with the U.S. Coast Guard.

The recreational fishery in these fishing zones spanning the Mendocino County line to the Mexico border remains open at this time.

“The past few seasons have been difficult for fishing families, communities and businesses, but it is imperative that we strike the right balance between protecting humpback whales and providing fishing opportunity,” Fish and Wildlife Director Charlton H. Bonham said in a statement. “The fleet has done an impressive job helping (the agency) manage risk of entanglement in the commercial fishery, including starting to remove fishing gear when the entanglement were first reported.”

Susan Wood covers law, cannabis, production, tech, energy, transportation, agriculture as well as banking and finance. For 27 years, Susan has worked for a variety of publications including the North County Times, Tahoe Daily Tribune and Lake Tahoe News. Reach her at 530-545-8662 or susan.wood@busjrnl.com.