For the fifth consecutive year, California officials are delaying the Bay Area’s commercial Dungeness crab season to decrease the chances of migrating whales currently off the coast getting ensnared by the crab-pot fishing lines.
The season was scheduled to start Nov. 15 in the waters from the Sonoma/Mendocino County line south to the Mexican border.
The order came down Friday afternoon from Charlton H. Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“Large aggregations of humpback whales continue to forage between Bodega Bay and Monterey and allowing the use of crab traps would increase the risk of an entanglement in those fishing zones,” he said in announcing the decision, which was made in consultation with the representatives of the fishing industry, environmental organizations and scientists.
Although another assessment will take place on or around Nov. 17, an opening date in time for California residents to enjoy Dungeness for the Nov. 23 Thanksgiving holiday is unlikely. That assessment could, however, lead to an opening date of Dec. 1, officials said.
The recreational Dungeness season will be allowed to start as scheduled on Nov. 4 – but with restrictions. Crabbers may not use trap gear, according to the state order; only hoop nets and crab snares will be allowed until further assessment.
Oceana, a Washington, D.C.-based ocean conservation organization, praised the postponement and equipment limits.
Entanglement can have tragic consequences for whales swimming or feeding off the coast, said scientist Geoff Shester, the group’s California campaign director. He is a member of the advisory California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group.
Shester said his group, like the state, is committed to finding solutions that work for the crab-fishing industry while ensuring “safer passage for wildlife off our shores.”
Since 2015, there have been delays in all but one commercial Dungeness season in the Bay Area. A toxin, domoic acid, that could sicken anyone who eats the tainted crab destroyed Northern California’s 2015-2016 commercial season and created delays in other years.
In 2018, the commercial season began without a hitch although recreational crabbers had to postpone their fishing.
In 2019 and 2020, the fishing line danger to whales resulted in a crabbing delay of several weeks. The 2020 crabbing season was officially set to begin Dec. 23, but price negotiations between crab fleets and seafood processors delayed the start until early January 2021.
With delays to protect whales, the truncated 2021-22 season ran from Dec. 29 to April 8, and the 2022-23 season from Dec. 31 to this past April 15.