November 19, 2025 — As crews along Washington’s coast splice rope, paint buoys, and stack their pots, the region’s commercial crab fleet is once again preparing for what the Chinook Observer calls the most prized fishery in the Pacific Northwest. According to an article published by the Observer on Nov. 16, the official start to the 2025 Washington commercial Dungeness crab season could come as early as Dec. 1 if the preseason test results for meat recovery and domoic acid meet the criteria.
The first round of tests delivered mixed results. Long Beach came close, but at 20.9 percent recovery on Nov. 3, it fell just shy of the 23 percent threshold required along the Washington and north Oregon Coasts. Other major test sites performed well above the cutoff: Astoria at 26.4 percent, Westport at 25 percent, and Garibaldi at 27.1 percent.