Saving Seafood

California ropeless gear bill dies without a hearing

May 3, 2021 — A California bill that would have required the ropeless pop-up gear in Dungeness crab and other trap fisheries by 2025, died without a hearing last week in the California State Assembly. Dubbed the Whale Entanglement Prevention Act, (AB-534) was introduced in February by Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) and was largely written by the Center for Biological Diversity.

Bonta was sworn in as California’s attorney general on April 23, and no other assembly member chose to pick up the bill after his departure.

“It was a true David and Goliath moment for the fishing industry. It shows when the facts are on our side and we work together, we can actually win,” said Ben Platt, a Crescent City-based fisherman and president of the California Coast Crab Association. “It was the consensus if we were mandated to go ropeless, we’d all go out of business.”

California fishermen were blindsided by bill when it was introduced, as new Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program (RAMP) regulations were instituted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in November. The RAMP rules — among other things — keep fishermen off the water when the presence of whales exceeded a certain threshold in state crab districts, as happened in November and December.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

California crabbers, activists tangle over ropeless gear legislation

April 7, 2021 — A coalition of California fishing and seafood groups is grappling with environmental groups and animal welfare activists over state legislation to mandate the adoption of ropeless gear in commercial and recreational fisheries to protect whales.

The struggle is closely watched on the East Coast, where Massachusetts state fisheries officials are embarking on a one-year experiment with ropeless or “pop-up” gear aiming to reduce entanglement danger for endangered right whales.

One tack taken by California Dungeness crabbers when talking to state lawmakers is to portray ropeless gear as unreliable – and potentially increasing the danger that lost gear poses to marine mammals.

“We have a pretty strong argument on our side,” said Ben Platt, president of the California Coast Crab Association. “I think the thing that resonates most is that anyone on the fishing industry side worked with pop-up gear thinks it is unworkable.”

“There’s at least a 20 percent failure rate,” said Platt. If used widely that could lead to “tangles of lost gear…not only a huge marine pollution issue,” he said. “That’s really our number-one argument and that’s what they (state legislators) seem to key in on.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

California Dungeness season pushed back to Dec. 16

November 30, 2020 — Citing a continuing presence of whales on the central California crab fishing grounds, the Dungeness season opener has been pushed back by an additional two weeks to Dec. 16, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife said this week.

Humpback whales were feeding in a familiar nearshore pattern similar to fall 2019 when that season was delayed, and a similar call was made by state officials to delay the crab season start to Dec. 1, pending findings from aerial surveys. The decision came back late Tuesday to hold off again until at least Dec. 16 to prevent risk of crab gear entangling whales.

Based on aerial and vessel surveys and observer reports along the coast, the state agency “after consulting with the Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group, is enacting a delay in the central management area,” said state fish and wildlife Director Charlton H. Bonham in announcing the decision. “Available data indicates the whales still remain in the fishing grounds.”

The California Coast Crab Association complained that the recreational crab fishery was “inexplicably” allowed to start on time in early November even as state officials contended too many whales were around for commercial gear to be set.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

California Dungeness crabbers protest early shutdown

April 29, 2020 — California state officials are ordering an early end to the southern Dungeness crab season May 15 to protect migrating whales, a move fishing advocates say is out of proportion to the actual risk.

In an April 15 notice Charlton Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, announced the Dungeness season would close and all gear pulled by mid-May, two months early, south of the Mendocino-Sonoma County line.

The decision comes as the fishery is winding down, with the California fleet gearing up for a promising salmon season that opens May 1. But it cuts off a sector that is providing jobs and seafood in coastal communities hit hard by coronavirus restrictions and their economic impact, said Ben Platt, president of the California Coast Crab Association.

“They say that there’s ‘significant risk.’ But the whale working group determined there was low risk, as they have in all of the recommendations this season,” said Platt, referring to a stakeholder advisory group established in 2015 to assess seasonal risks of gear entanglement.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

California crab fishery to close in May to protect whales

April 27, 2020 — Commercial fishermen are protesting an order by California wildlife authorities to close the Dungeness crab fishery in mid-May to protect whales and sea turtles from becoming entangled in fishing gear.

There have been no confirmed interactions between commercial Dungeness crab gear and any whales during the current crab season, which began in December, Ben Platt, president of the Crescent City-based California Coast Crab Association, said in a statement.

California Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Charlton H. Bonham on Wednesday ordered the fishery to close on May 15 for the remainder of the season south of the Sonoma-Mendocino county line, which is about 90 miles (145 kilometers) north of San Francisco.

Acknowledging challenges facing the commercial fishing industry during the coronavirus pandemic, the department said the decision “provides additional time on the water while balancing the need to protect whales and turtles.”

Read the full story at The North Bay Business Journal