There’s no local Dungeness crab for Christmas or New Year’s, but there should be plenty soon if you want to build your Super Bowl party or Valentine’s Day dinner around the West Coast’s favorite crustacean.
The Bay Area’s commercial crab-fishing season can begin Jan. 5, state officials announced Friday, now that many humpback whales have safely made their way down the coast.
The decision came after a series of delays since November meant to protect migrating whales from getting tangled in fishing lines, and it came with a key restriction: Fleets will have to operate under a 40% trap reduction.
“Setting the opening date of the Dungeness crab fishery is never easy,” Charlton H. Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said in a statement. “The commercial Dungeness crab fishery is inherently complex, and careful consideration is required to ensure we are supporting California’s fishing communities while also reducing risk of entanglement of whales and sea turtles off our coast.”
The state’s decision — made in consultation with representatives of the fishing industry, environmental organizations and scientists — will open up commercial crabbing from the Sonoma/Mendocino county line south to the Mexican border. Trap restrictions on recreational crabbers will be lifted Jan. 2.
For commercial crabbers, it’s a late but welcome start to a season that may end early. They will be allowed to drop crab pots on Jan. 2 but not pull them up until Jan. 5 at 12:01 a.m. If last season is any indication, they may get three months out of what would normally be a five-month season.
The season is likely to be even shorter in the far northern counties of Del Norte, Humboldt and Mendocino. The state has mandated a delay until at least Jan. 15 because of the presence of a toxin, called domoic acid, found in crab samples in those waters. Further testing will be conducted before a date is set.
Lisa Damrosch, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, said she welcomes the Jan. 5 news that will allow her organization’s members to get back to feeding the community as well as coastal economies, adding that she was pleased “the hard work by the fleet and the resulting reduction in entanglements has been recognized.”
Last season’s trap reduction was 50%.
Dr. Geoff Shester, a senior scientist for Oceana, said the state’s decision is “the right move” until safer pop-up gear becomes more prevalent. According to Oceana, about 75% of whale entanglements are fatal.
He noted that the state will likely need to shorten the upcoming season for conventional traps, as it did this year, The 2024-25 season opened late, on Jan. 18, 2025, and closed in late spring when whales were again on the move.
Since 2015, there have been delays in all but one commercial Dungeness season in the Bay Area, mostly because of whale entanglements. Domoic acid, which could sicken anyone who eats the tainted crab, destroyed Northern California’s 2015-2016 commercial season and created delays in other years.
Traditionally, California’s commercial season begins Nov. 15 and the recreational season earlier than that.
