California commercial Dungeness crab fishing season finally gets opening date
State officials on Friday announced the commercial Dungeness crab fishery for most of the California coast will finally open south of the Sonoma-Mendocino county line beginning Jan. 5.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) issued the latest update Friday, saying that the fishery in Fishing Zones 3-6 -- which stretches south from the Sonoma-Mendocino county line to the US-Mexico border -- would open at 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 5. A pre-soak for traps will begin three days earlier at 8:01 a.m. on Jan. 2. The designated area will be subject to a 50% trap reduction.
For Fishing Zones 1 and 2 -- the area from the California-Oregon border to the Sonoma-Mendocino county line -- will have the start of the Dungeness crab season further delayed "due to the inability to conduct industry-sponsored meat quality testing," with the season opening at 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 5. A pre-soak for traps will begin three days earlier at 8:01 a.m. on Jan. 12. That area will be subject to a 25% trap reduction.
The recreational crabbing season began on Nov. 2, but the use of traps was prohibited in Zones 3 and 4, between the Sonoma-Mendocino county line down to Lopez Point in Monterey County due to the "high abundance" of humpback whales in the area that would be endangered by possible entanglements. That restriction will be lifted effective at 8:01 a.m. on Jan. 2.
Dungeness crab season traditionally starts in mid-November, but delays have become a consistent problem for crabbers in recent years, frustrating fishermen who rely on filling the increased holiday demand for the crustaceans to make a living.
Since 2018, the protection of whales has caused a delay of the commercial crab season. There's a growing tension among crab fishermen about alternative methods of whale-safe fishing to offset the losses of increasingly shortened seasons.
The previous crab season was delayed until Jan. 18 and ended early on April 8 due to the whale migration.
