Bay Area fishermen, restaurants excited for start of Dungeness crab season
By Sunday morning, Dungeness crab caught right off of the San Francisco coast will be available for sale because, after a lengthy delay, the Bay Area's commercial Dungeness crab season will finally start.
Many fishermen planned to retrieve their crab pots at 12:01 a.m. They were allowed to set their traps on Thursday.
"We've got a tank on our boat. We put our crabs in there. Once the tank is full, we'll put the crab in these totes," said fisherman Jonathan Tin, as he pointed to the large plastic containers on the boat named Pale Horse.
The start of the season also means Tin and other fishermen will soon get that long-awaited paycheck.
"We're excited, ready to go to work. It's been a while, so we're ready to go to work," Tin said.
Typically the commercial season starts in mid-November. But migrating whales delayed the start to Jan. 5. The crab fishermen have been dealing with season delays for the last five years.
"It's been extremely tough for us, especially with the loss of the salmon season the past two years. That's half of our income gone. So all we can rely on right now is crabbing," said Captain Shawn Flading of the boat named Kvins.
Flading has been working as a commercial fisherman for about eight years.
"Usually, when we go in November, we'd get the Thanksgiving market and the Christmas market. So we'd get a better price for our crab. And now, all the holidays are over, that affects our price," Tin said, who's been also fishing commercially for eight years.
Tin said he had a great 2024 even though last season was pushed back to mid-January. He said he and his co-workers caught more than 100,000 pounds of crabs.
It's hard to say what this year will look like. Tin said they won't know until they retrieve their first pots.
"The boats pull up, they bring (the crab) to us, and they're cooked within an hour or two out of the water. It just doesn't get any fresher than that," said Bob Partrite, who's the chief operating officer of five restaurants at Pier 39, including Crab House.
Partrite and other seafood restaurants are also excited about the start of the commercial season.
"We've partnered with a local guy that has a few boats. And he brings them to us the minute he gets them out of the water. We get them delivered daily," Partrite said.
Partrite said the crabs they serve now are from the Oregon and Washington areas. They planned to serve fresh local Dungeness crab as early as Monday.
For people who want to cook at home, they can buy them right off the boats starting on Sunday morning. Some of the fishermen will return to Piers 45 and 47 in San Francisco to sell the crab directly to consumers.
