November 4, 2019 — The state may delay California’s commercial Dungeness crab season. The season, which was due to open Nov. 15 on the coast south of the Mendocino-Sonoma County line, could now begin on Nov. 23.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife made the announcement Friday in response to a settlement with an environmental group over whale entanglements in commercial Dungeness crab fishing gear. It will make the final decision on Nov. 4. Recreational season will begin as scheduled on Nov. 2.
Even if the eight-day delay to the commercial season happens, it should not disrupt the Bay Area tradition of cracked Dungeness crab on the Thanksgiving table, said Noah Oppenheim, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. However, it would cut into a peak period for the local fishing fleet, which has already lost millions of dollars when three of the last four commercial seasons were delayed because of domoic acid contamination from algal blooms.
In its 2017 lawsuit against the state over gear entanglements, Oakland’s Center for Biological Diversity claimed the state was not doing enough to prevent the deaths of endangered whales, which reached record levels in 2015 and 2016. The organization settled the lawsuit last spring, which required the state to take steps to mitigate risk of entanglement of the marine mammals. That included ending last season’s Dungeness crab season three months early, on April 15.