Saving Seafood

Ropeless fishing gear for catching crabs shows positive results

August 8, 2025 — Ropeless fishing gear is proving effective at avoiding whale entanglements without sacrificing yields for commercial fishermen harvesting Dungeness crabs, according to research findings released by the State of California, nonprofit groups and and industry partners.

In a third consecutive year of state-sponsored trials where Northern California fishermen used what is often called “pop-up gear,” researchers found that 12 boats landed more than 217,000 pounds of Dungeness crab with an estimated value of about $1.4 million, or 18,100 pounds per vessel. Each boat made an average 12 fishing trips along a roughly 130-mile coastal region otherwise closed to Dungeness crab fishing due to risk of whale entanglements, according to researchers.

“The results of this spring’s pop-up gear testing are nothing less than wildly successful. Even with a vast increase in the amount of gear each fisherman was allowed to use, not a single string of fishing gear was lost,” said Geoff Shester, a senior scientist and campaign director with Oceana California, in a news release.

Read the full article at E&E News

CALIFORNIA: Whale-safe pop-up gear could bring crab back to Monterey Bay markets

August 5, 2025 — Pop-up fishing gear is one step closer to becoming available to local crab fishermen.

“We hope to see Monterey Bay fishermen really get back out on the water and keep bringing in crab in a way that’s whale-safe,” said Geoff Shester with Oceana.

In recent years, Monterey Bay has seen the Dungeness crab fishing season closed down or shortened due to the risk of whale entanglements in fishing ropes. The closures have put a financial burden on local fishermen.

“We’ve lost a good number of fishermen who have either retired or stopped fishing and taken land jobs,” said Gasper Catanzaro with Monterey Fish Co.

The pop-up gear is designed to keep whales safe while letting fishermen get back on the water.

“The way the pop-up gear works is all of the lines and buoys stay down with the trap. The fisherman is actually able to push a button on their tablet, see everyone else’s gear as well, and then retrieve the gear,” Shester said. “So, it pops up.”

Shester said Oceana’s most recent trial for the gear was their most successful yet; it brought in $1.4 million worth of crab this past spring.

“We were able to get out on a fishing boat, and every time it popped up, all the fishermen yelled, ‘Science!’” Shester said.

Read the full article at KSBW

CALIFORNIA: California closes Dungeness crab fishery to protect whales from entanglement

June 19, 2025 — The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has announced the closure of the Commercial Dungeness Crab Fishery in the Northern Management Area to protect whales from entanglement. This decision, assessed under the Risk Assessment Mitigation Program (RAMP), affects Fishing Zones 1 and 2, spanning from the California-Oregon border to the Sonoma-Mendocino County line.

Marine scientists at Oceana have highlighted the severe damage that entanglement can cause to whales.

“Whales, in particular Humpback Whales, are getting entangled in trap fisheries in that line gear, which then wrap around their flukes or around their fin and cause them injuries and reduced feeding and potentially reduced reproduction as well,” said Oceana’s Campaign Manager & Marine Scientist Caitlynn Birch.

Read the full article at KRCR

CALIFORNIA: California to close final sections of commercial Dungeness crab fishery

June 17, 2025 — The U.S. state of California is set to close the final two areas of its commercial Dungeness crab fishery following a confirmed case of a humpback whale becoming entangled in gear from the fishery.

“On 13 June 2025, I evaluated entanglement risk for the commercial Dungeness crab fisheries,” California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Director Charlton Bonham said in a memo. “Upon evaluation of the management considerations pursuant to [state law], I have determined that the management action listed below protects humpback whales based on the best available science.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Op-ed: Save California’s Crab Culture From Drowning in Regulations

June 4, 2025 — It’s 5 a.m. when my alarm goes off. I roll out of bed and put on a long-sleeve shirt, a hoodie, a puffer jacket, and the thickest pants I own—it’s gonna be cold out there. My dad’s waiting for me in the kitchen with a tumbler of coffee, a piece of peanut butter toast, and a big smile on his face.

“Are you ready to bring home some crab?” he asks.

We drive to meet my grandpa on his boat, docked in the Sausalito harbor, 30 minutes north of San Francisco. It’s still dark out, but my grandfather’s energy says otherwise. The motor is already running, and we take off. Streaks of sunrise peek out from the horizon as we pass under the Golden Gate Bridge. The pots have been soaking, sitting on the ocean floor since yesterday morning, and they should be full of Dungeness crabs that fell for our delicious trap of stinky old chicken meat.

My grandpa, Stanley Ross, a self-identifying fisherman living in my hometown of Oakland, has fished these waters for over 40 years. Crabbing is more than a hobby for him, me, and other recreational fishers; it’s a cultural touchstone in the Bay Area, a way we connect to the natural rhythms of the region. Our winters and springs have been marked by celebratory crab dinners, friends and family squeezing around a dining room table covered with butter-stained newspapers.

Read the full article at Civil Eats

‘A ghost town’: How Bodega Bay is adapting to the ailing seafood industry

April 30, 2025 — From the living room window of their waterfront home, Carol and Tony Anello have watched the rise and fall of Bodega Bay. Traffic on Westshore Road flows past in waves, fishing boats pull into the docks and throngs of visitors line up at Spud Point Crab Co., their restaurant next door. Launched more than 20 years ago and known for its chowder and Dungeness crab rolls, the restaurant has helped make the Anellos beacons of the community.

It has also served as a life raft as they left the commercial fishing business.

“I had a premonition that the fishing industry was going down,” said Tony Anello, who fished commercially for salmon, crab and herring for 54 years before selling his boat Anabelle last year. “There are guys dropping out of this industry like flies, and I’m one of them.”

At Bodega Bay and other picturesque seaside villages along the California coast, the fishing economy is gradually sinking.

The latest blows came earlier this month: Commercial harvest of Chinook salmon was banned in California for the third consecutive year because of low populations, and the state’s Dungeness crab fishery has been severely restricted in an effort to protect humpback whales from entanglements. Sportfishing for salmon — a valuable industry and a beloved pastime — also was prohibited for two straight years, and will be severely cut back this year to what may amount to a single weekend in June in Northern California.

Read the full story at CalMatters

New study paints gloomy picture of climate change’s impact on commercial fishing

April 22, 2025 — A new study of some of California’s most commercially significant aquatic species paints a grim picture for the future of the state’s fishing industry under the growing threat of climate change.

The study, compiled by a host of researchers including federal and state scientists as well as researchers from UC Santa Cruz and UC Davis, looked at 34 aquatic species in an attempt to gauge how each would fare under predicted climate change scenarios.

Among the species studied were Dungeness crab, red abalone, Pacific herring, Pismo clams, pink shrimp, Pacific bonito and California spiny lobster. The group ranked each by their level of vulnerability to changing environmental conditions.

“The most striking thing that we found is that among the species that were ranked as the most highly vulnerable happened to also be some of California’s economically valuable and culturally important species,” said Mikaela Provost, assistant professor of fisheries ecology at UC Davis and co-author of the study.

California’s oceans are highly productive due to seasonal upwelling which keeps water temperatures cool and filled with nutrients. But models of future conditions forecast disruption through rising temperatures, deoxygenation and potential changes in circulation.

Read the full story at NBC Bay Area

New gear could keep California crab fishermen on the water longer, and whales safe

April 14, 2025 — After years of a shortened crab fishing season aimed at preventing whale entanglements off the West Coast, California crabbers are experimenting with a new fishing method that allows them to stay on the water longer while keeping the marine mammals safe.

The state has been running a pilot program since 2023 to try out so-called pop-up gear to protect whales while finding a solution to fishermen’s woes and is expected to fully authorize the gear for spring Dungeness crab fishing in 2026.

The gear, which uses a remote device to pull up lines laid horizontally across the sea floor, also is being tried on lobster in Maine, black sea bass in Georgia and fisheries in Australia and Canada.

“Unfortunately, it has been six years we’ve been delayed or closed early for whales,” said Brand Little, a San Francisco Dungeness crab fisherman who is among those participating in the pilot.

Read the full article at The Associated Press

WASHINGTON: Washington commission approves new line marking rule for Dungeness crab fishery

April 11, 2025 — State regulators in Washington have approved a new line marking rule for traps used in the state’s Dungeness crab fishery in the hopes of reducing the risk vertical lines pose to whales.

“These proposed regulations are instrumental in advancing conservation efforts around whale entanglements,” Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Coastal Marine Fisheries Whale Entanglement Coordinator Megan Hintz said in February, when the changes were first proposed.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

CALIFORNIA: Dungeness trap restrictions tighten as whales move in

April 8, 2025 — As the annual migration of humpback whales makes its way up the California coast, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is tightening restrictions on Dungeness crab gear to protect the endangered mammals while allowing fishing to continue where it’s safe.

Starting at 6 p.m. on April 15, new measures will go into effect for both commercial and recreational fisheries under the state’s Risk Assessment Mitigation Program (RAMP). The latest call from CDFW director Charlton H. Bonham balances the need to keep fishermen on the water with increasing risk of entanglements as whales return to forage offshore.

Read the full article at National Fisherman