April 17, 2024 — The commercial Dungeness crab fishing industry was closed early in central and southern California on April 8 because of entanglement risks from returning Humpback whales to state waters where they forage.
Traditionally, the Dungeness crab fishing season runs from November through June using vertical line fishing gear that spans from the surface to the seafloor.
Whales can get trapped in these vertical lines, including whales that are protected as endangered.
After whale entanglements spiked from 2015 to 2018, the Dungeness crab season has faced delay or closure since 2019.
Season closures are affecting the fishing business, but now during this closure, a handful of commercial fishermen such as Brand Little, are testing a whale-safe kind of fishing gear, called “pop-up” or “ropeless” fishing gear, hoping the state will authorize this alternative for use next season, so fishermen can still work.
Commercial fisherman Brand Little described how the first test of the spring season went with about 20 fishermen.
“They said it went remarkably well. Everything popped up, everything came back, they caught crabs and they’re like, this is so much better than putting the gear in the gear shed and quit making money. We still have a couple months left in our statutory season, so this isn’t as great as the way we normally do it, but this is better than nothing,” Little said.