January 13, 2024 — The Bay Area’s commercial Dungeness crab season can begin Jan. 18, state officials announced Thursday, now that many of the migrating behemoths of the sea have safely made their way down the coast.
The decision comes after a series of delays since November meant to protect whales from getting tangled in fishing lines, and it comes with a key restriction: Fleets will have to operate under a 50 percent trap reduction.
“This management decision is a balanced approach that achieves two outcomes,” the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced. “First, this trap reduction will help reduce entanglement risk for humpback whales by reducing the amount of gear and vertical lines in the water. Second, the decision gets the commercial fishery open statewide.”
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. 15 but not pull them up until Jan. 18. If last season is any indication, they may get three months out of what would normally be a five-month season.