Saving Seafood

OREGON: Crabbing season faces new delays

December 12, 2025 — North Coast crabbing season to stay closed until at least Dec. 31

On Friday, Dec. 5, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife announced delays to the North Coast commercial Dungeness crab season until at least Wednesday, Dec. 31, citing Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife meat fill test results.

According to an ODFW press release issued on Dec. 5, the commercial season will be open from Cape Falcon to the California border on Dec. 16. The North Coast’s season will remain closed until at least Dec. 31.

“The crabs in Oregon were good north of Cape Falcon,” said Rob Seitz, a local fisherman, “but the ones just north of the river in Washington didn’t quite make it.”

The meat fill test is done to ensure that the crabs have enough meat to meet consumer standards, and to keep the ecosystem healthy, according to ODFW. The required meat recovery percentage is 23%; Long Beach crabs only had a meat fill rate of 22.5%.

The decision to only open Cape Falcon to the California border allows crabbers to ensure that their product is of consistent quality.

Read the full article at The Astorian

OREGON: Oregon to open southern coast for Dungeness crab harvest 16 December

December 8, 2025 — After delaying the full season by two weeks, the U.S. state of Oregon will open its southern coast to commercial Dungeness crab harvesting on 16 December.

“Oregon’s crab fishery is an economic driver for coastal communities,” Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) Marine Resources Program Manager Justin Ainsworth said in a release. “I appreciate crab fishermen being patient as we tried to align our opening with Washington, but the best option now is to open up what we can.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

OREGON: Oregon delays Dungeness crab season after Washington testing falls short

November 25, 2025 — Officials in the U.S. state of Oregon have decided to delay the state’s commercial Dungeness crab season by at least two weeks, despite preseason testing showing that the state’s crabs met the regulatory threshold for meat recovery.

In a 21 November announcement, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) declared that it would be pushing back the season opening from 1 December to 16 December due to testing in Long Beach, Washington, the only site to show lower meat recovery levels.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

OREGON: Commercial Dungeness season delayed until at least Dec. 16, ODFW announces Friday, to wait for Washington improvements

November 24, 2025 — Oregon’s commercial Dungeness crab season is delayed coastwide until at least Dec. 16, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Friday.

Dungeness crab along the Oregon coast met both meat and safe biotoxin level requirements, however the ODFW said the season will be delayed as crab tested in the Long Beach, Wash. area have not yet met the meat fill requirement.

In a news release Friday, the ODFW said most Dungeness crab advisory committee members supported the delay as it is least disruptive to traditional fishing patterns and may improve market conditions. The tension comes because if the Washington season is closed and the Oregon season is open, then Washington crabbers with permits for both states move their operations to the north Oregon coast, putting extra pressure on the fishery.

Read the full article at KLCC

WASHINGTON: Washington crabbers hope for a December start

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.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Record number of invasive green crab found on Annette Island, potential impacts to subsistence fishing

November 13, 2025 — It was the first sunny morning in days, and two scientists donned in Xtratuf boots carefully strolled along a rocky, grassy shoreline. They were at Settlers Cove on the north end of the Tongass Highway. The duo are no strangers to flipping rocks and looking into puddles for carapaces, or crab shells.

Before long, they located the exoskeleton of a Dungeness crab, which is indigenous to Southeast and much of the West Coast. The find is somewhat of a relief to the group, who didn’t spot any invasive European green crabs that day.

But that isn’t always the case. Shells and live crabs were spotted to the north in Ketchikan this summer, and they’ve since been found on eight other beaches along the road system.

Read the full article at KRBD

CALIFORNIA: Why holiday crab tradition in California faces another disrupted season

October 28, 2025 — For many Californians, crab bakes, crab cakes and crab feeds are traditional holiday fare.

But the need to protect humpback whales in California’s coastal waters, combined with widespread domoic acid contamination along the northern coast, has once again put the brakes on the Dungeness commercial fishery and parts of the recreational fishery this fall.

Consuming shellfish contaminated with domoic acid can cause illness and death.

Last week, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced it was delaying the opening of commercial crab fishing statewide until Jan. 1. The season will end July 31. It had been scheduled to start Nov. 1.

New state regulations require the closure of the fishery if three or more humpback whales are confirmed to have been entangled in crab gear during the calendar year. In 2025, four whales have been entangled in commercial Dungeness crab fishery ropes and lines. An additional four humpbacks have been snared in gear that officials suspected but could not confirm was for crab fishing.

Read the full article at The Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA: Commercial Dungeness crab fishing season delayed for all of California

October 27, 2025 — The commercial Dungeness crab fishing season has been delayed for all of California.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced that the presence of whales and leatherback sea turtles has stopped the starting of crab season. The season would have begun Nov. 1.

Recreation Dungeness crab season will open on Nov. 1 along the coast of the Central Coast and the Monterey Bay, but with some restrictions.

The use of crab traps between the areas of the Sonoma and Mendocino County line and Lopez Point, Monterey County, will be restricted.

A Fleet Advisory has also been sent out to avoid dropping any gear in the areas near the whales. Hoop nets also cannot be left unattended for extended periods and must be serviced every two hours.

Read the full article at KSBW

CALIFORNIA: West Coast fisheries ‘incredibly challenged’: McGuire forum addresses Dungeness, salmon impacts

October 6, 2025 — Last week, the California State Senate’s Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture hosted its 50th annual Zeke Grader Fisheries Forum. Scientists and representatives from various state agencies, tribal government, industry and environmental groups met to discuss challenges facing kelp forests off our shores, the future of a later and later Dungeness crab season and a salmon fishery now in its third consecutive year of commercial fishing closure.

Committee Chair Senator Mike McGuire opened proceedings by noting the challenges the state’s fisheries are facing as well as some of the state’s redoubled efforts and funding, via Proposition 4 funding and other legislative commitments, to improve resiliency along the California coast and waterways.

“I think that we can all agree, fisheries on the West Coast, salmon and Dungeness crab both, … have been incredibly challenged over the past several years, and it seems for every step forward that we take, two steps are taken back,” McGuire said. “… We’ve had some wins, though. We had the first recreational salmon fishing season in California in three years. The challenge that we continue to see (is) no commercial salmon fishing for the third straight year, and that has had massive impacts on rural coastal communities, especially in Northern California …

“Protecting (and) preserving our state’s Fisheries and Aquaculture is vital. It’s vital to the long-term health of rural economies up and down this state, and it is also key to the social and cultural diversity we celebrate here in California, especially with tribal nations.”

Read the full article at The Fresno Bee

CALIFORNIA: California wildlife officers find dozens illegally harvesting Dungeness crab

September 24, 2025 — In August, California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) officers caught roughly 45 individuals engaged in illegally harvesting Dungeness crab, ultimately issuing 15 citations.

Officers headed to the scene at Thronton Beach in San Francisco after being alerted to “30 people” potentially poaching via the state’s tip line. Law enforcement found close to 45 individuals taking part and opted to approach small groups of poachers as they left the beach.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource