Saving Seafood

CALIFORNIA: CDFW bans conventional crab traps in Monterey Bay to reduce whale entanglements

March 16, 2026 — The California Department of Fish and Wildlife said Friday that commercial and recreational Dungeness crab fishers can no longer use conventional traps in parts of the California coast.

DFW said the ban takes effect March 27 in waters south of Pigeon Point past Morro Bay in state fishing zones 4 and 5, including Monterey Bay.

CDFW said commercial Dungeness crab fishing may continue for the rest of the season through June 30 using newly approved “pop-up” gear beginning in April.

Recreational crab fishers may continue using hoop gear, which does not use vertical lines in the water column, in the closure areas after March 27.

Read the full article at KSBW

Sun Coast Calamari buys new vessels, makes key hire in expansion push

March 12, 2026 — Oxnard, California, U.S.A.-based Sun Coast Calamari has purchased two new vessels and appointed a new general manager in a bid to expand its position within the California squid fishery.

In a release, the company announced the Reichle family – which owns both Sun Coast Calamari and Lund’s Fishers – has acquired the F/V Anduril and the F/V Taylor Brooks, which will both participate in the squid fishery year-round. The Anduril, a 58-foot purse seine vessel, was built in 1991; the Taylor Brooks is a 68-foot purse seiner built in 1983.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

CALIFORNIA: California announces USD 11 million for salmon restoration projects

March 6, 2025 — The state of California has announced USD 11 million (EUR 9.5 million) in funding for five salmon restoration projects as part of nearly USD 60 million (EUR 52 million) in grants awarded by the state’s Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB).

The funding for salmon projects is another investment into Governor Gavin Newsom’s California Salmon Strategy for a Hotter, Drier Future, a guide introduced in 2024 to coordinate the state’s efforts to support salmon recovery along the West Coast.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

CALIFORNIA: Next Step in Trump’s California Offshore Oil Drilling Effort Announced

February 27, 2026 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced a step toward leasing areas for offshore oil and gas drilling in California this week, by launching an associated environmental process.

BOEM announced Thursday the department would prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement for lease sales in northern, central and southern California.

A soon-to-be-released statement will primarily concern sales planned for 2027 in central and southern California, according to BOEM.

A Northern California lease sale is proposed for 2029, according to a BOEM document.

This is a California-specific part of a broader effort by the Trump Administration to open lease areas in federal waters across the country for sale to oil and gas companies, with an aim to restore domestic energy production.

Read the full article at the Local Coast Outpost

Whale Entanglements in Fishing Gear Surge Off U.S. West Coast During Marine Heatwaves

February 26, 2026 — Each spring, humpback whales start to feed off the coast of California and Oregon on dense schools of anchovies, sardines and krill—prey sustained by cool, nutrient-rich water that seasonal winds draw up from the deep ocean.

That process, known as coastal upwelling, turns the California Current into one of the most productive marine ecosystems in the world, giving whales a chance to rebuild the energy reserves they depleted during months of fasting in their winter breeding grounds in Mexico.

But according to a new study published on Wednesday in the scientific journal, PLOS Climate, rising ocean temperatures are shrinking and redefining this critical foraging habitat, putting the humpbacks at greater risk of entanglement in fishing gear.

Marine heatwaves weaken upwelling, reducing the amount of cold, nutrient-rich water reaching the surface. That, in turn, reduces offshore krill blooms. Humpbacks then begin to move inshore, where other prey, like anchovies and sardines tend to swarm. There, they are more likely to overlap with dangerous fishing activity and fixed gear, like Dungeness crab traps.

Read the full article at Inside Climate News

Gear lending library helps Dungeness crabbers go ropeless

February 19, 2026 — California Fish and Wildlife’s Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program (RAMP) is working to reduce marine mammal entanglements and is allowing fishermen willing to use ropeless gear a chance to keep fishing in areas where whales congregate after April 1.

Getting fishermen to try new things, particularly very expensive things, has never been easy, but the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation has been making strides in convincing Dungeness crab fishermen to try pop-up gear through its Innovative Gear Lending Library. “We’ve been working with fishermen experimenting with different systems since 2021, but most testing didn’t really get going until we were issued an EFP in 2023.” says gear innovations manager, Greg Wells. “We started with a grant from the California government’s Ocean Protection Council that allowed us to buy some of these systems,” says Wells. “Our job has been to support testing while reducing the financial burden on fishermen and gathering data and feedback.”

Read the full article at National Fisherman

CALIFORNIA: Humboldt County crab season begins after delay, but whale entanglement could cut it short

February 17, 2026 — Commercial Dungeness crab fishermen off the Humboldt County coast are finally entering the first couple of weeks of the season after a delay pushed the start into January. The delay was tied to high levels of domoic acid, after problems were identified during preseason testing back in September in Northern California.

“We started to see a domoic acid problem during our pre-season testing in Northern California as early as late September. It impacted the recreational fishery, which began on November 1st,” said California Department of Fish and Wildlife Environmental Scientist Christy Juhasz.

Read the full article at KRCR

CALIFORNIA: Ropeless crab gear cleared for spring Dungeness fishery; grants offered.

February 12, 2026 — For the first time, California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife has approved ropeless crab traps as an alternative gear fishers can use in the Dungeness crab fishery during the spring 2026 season.

While several manufacturers are entering West Coast fisheries with ropeless crab traps, Sub Sea Sonics is the first to be authorized to allow commercial crab fishers to continue operating during seasonal fishery closures between April 1 and July 15, 2026. Another manufacturer, EdgeTech, is expected to receive approval from CDFW, according to Geoff Shester, fisheries innovation director and senior scientist with Oceana.

“All eyes are on—let’s see how this goes in the spring,” says Shester.

Over the last few years, ropeless crab traps, or “pop-up gear” have emerged as an experimental option allowing fishers to deploy a buoy using an acoustic signal, rather than leaving a rope suspended in the water.

Read the full article at Monterey County Now

CALIFORNIA: California approves pop-up gear as “alternative gear” for commercial crabbers

February 9, 2026 — Commercial crabbers in California’s Dungeness crab fishery can now use pop-up, or ropeless, gear to continue fishing, even after a fishing area is closed.

“Pop-up gear gives us fishermen the ability to harvest Dungeness crab for the public while the whales and turtles are present,” said Stephen Melz, a commercial Dungeness crab fisher who helped test pop-up gear in the state’s fishery last year. “It is an amazing way that technology and the spirit of innovation have come together to bring back fishing opportunity!”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Whale strandings prompt Dungeness crabbing rule changes

February 5, 2026 — Last September, a humpback whale off the coast of California and another off the coast of Mexico were found dragging gear from Dungeness crabbing operations in Oregon. In November, rigging from the Oregon Dungeness crab fishery caused the stranding of a juvenile humpback whale on the beach in Yachats that was subsequently euthanized, according to wildlife officials.

Whale entanglements are becoming more common along the west coast of the United States, with NOAA Fisheries reporting as many as three dozen confirmed sightings in 2024.

In an effort to prevent the entanglements, last year, the state of Oregon mandated that commercial crabbing operations reduce the number of pots they deploy and stick to shallower waters on May 1. Now, state regulators have moved the date earlier in the season, April 1.

The impact of the change

Poggy Lapham is owner/operator of the 66-foot, Newport-based fishing vessel Michele Ann. On a recent morning, Lapham stood on the bridge of his boat while watching a small crane lift five-foot-square plastic bins brimming with freshly-caught Dungeness crab from the ship’s hold. A forklift took the bins to a scale and then a refrigerated tractor-trailer.

Lapham said the crabbing community was not consulted about the new rules, and even though the change will likely not impact his bottom line, it will undermine the profitability of many smaller operations.

“I typically don’t fish [for crab] that late in the season, as it is, but if you look out the window of this boat right now, I can pick out a whole bunch of boats where that is an essential part of their season,” he said.

Typically on April 1, Lapham begins to harvest sablefish, which is also known as black cod. He uses traps that sit on the sea floor like crab pots. And just like crab pots, the denial-of-exit trap is tethered to a rope and a buoy that floats on the surface.

Lapham knows the industry well. In fact, he’s a member of the federally mandated West Coast Take Reduction Team for sablefish pot fishing.

Read the full article at KLCC