Bay Area restaurants, crabbers prepare as whales force Dungeness crab season to close early
SAN FRANCISCO – In an effort to protect humpback whales, the California Department of Fish & Wildlife announced commercial crab season in the region will come to a close on Saturday.
The decision was made as the CDFW anticipates humpback whales will be arriving in the region in coming weeks to forage off the coast. Last year, there were several entanglements that occurred in March and April.
But the early closure, as well as later than usual opening to the season, has economic impacts on the crab fishermen and restaurants and businesses that sell crab.
"Being on the Wharf and in this restaurant all my life, we take a lot of pride in being able to go down to the boats, bring it back, serving the freshest fish possible," said Paul Capurro, owner of Capurro's Restaurant. "I think crab is one of the big things that makes Fisherman's Wharf, Fisherman's Wharf."
Since he won't be able to source his crab locally, Capurro told KPIX he will have to pay more for crab.
"The price goes absolutely through the roof," he said.
As a result, he'll have to raise his prices, which Capurro said he doesn't like to do.
"In today's environment, it's not fun to raise prices," he said. "It just kind of almost takes away from the hospitality end of greeting people and saying come in, I've got fresh, local crab at a really reasonable price."
Local crabbers will see less revenue without spring fishing, said Holly Fruehling.
"I for one was very excited to be spring fishing this year," Fruehling said. "In addition to having a shorter season, we also lost that January. So, it would have been really nice to be able to have this spring fishery so I could make up a little bit extra cash and so I could get that boat loan paid off."
That being said, she says nobody – especially crab fishermen – wants to hurt a whale.
"But all of us love whales, none of us want to entangle a whale," she told KPIX. "Not one fisherman wants to harm a whale, I can tell you that right now."
Fruehling wishes there was a happy medium, where the crabbers could continue a little longer into the spring while minimizing risk to the whales.
"I knew that we were going to close the season early, but I was hoping that we could maybe squeeze out another couple of weeks or maybe a month of fishing half of our gear," she said. "Our season has been shorter than usual, but we're hoping that it gets back to something somewhat similar to what it used to be."
The CDFW provided the following statement from its director:
"The fleet has done an impressive job helping CDFW manage entanglement risk in the commercial fishery and appreciates the high level of involvement to inform the risk assessment process," said CDFW Director Bonham. "We applaud the Working Group for their dedication and continued focus on the long-term viability of the fishery that helps ensure we protect future opportunities to bring Dungeness crab to Californians and provide protection for whales and sea turtles off our coast."