Saving Seafood

OREGON: Oregon crab fishery faces scrutiny after record whale entanglements

February 28, 2025 — Oregon’s commercial Dungeness crab fishery is under increasing pressure to address whale entanglements after a record-breaking four incidents in 2024, including one as recently as January 6th.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) has issued an advisory to crabbers, urging them to be vigilant and avoid setting gear in areas where whales are transiting or foraging; however, conservation groups like Oceana, a leading ocean conservation organization, criticized the advisory as inadequate and the voluntary measures are insufficient and they are calling for stronger, more decisive action.

Read the full article at The World Link

CALIFORNIA: A ‘perfect storm’ of environmental and political issues is driving Santa Cruz fishers out of the water

February 20, 2025 — Would Santa Cruz still be Santa Cruz without a fishing industry? After nine rocky years of delayed, shortened and outright canceled fishing seasons, the coastal community could soon have to face a cultural reckoning as the number of commercial fishing boats active in the Santa Cruz Harbor dwindles to fewer than 20.

For generations, fishers along California’s Central Coast have relied on two primary catches to make their living: Dungeness crab in the winter and Chinook salmon in the summer.

But over the past nine years, this traditional rhythm has been disrupted by a cascade of environmental challenges. Migrating whales are lingering in crabbing areas longer, contributing to delayed seasons and reduced catch limits, while droughts and fluctuating river levels have decimated salmon populations.

The impact on Santa Cruz County’s commercial fishers has been profound. The state’s salmon fishery has been closed since 2023, with little sign of recovery, while the crab season has been shortened and restricted for the past six years.

Read the full article at Lookout Santa Cruz

OREGON: Dungeness crab haul is down this season for Oregon fleet, but strong prices making up for less volume

February 19, 2025 — Oregon’s commercial Dungeness crab catch is down so far this season but the price fishermen are getting for their catch is buoying the fleet’s spreadsheets.

“The volume is down but the price has been really good so the actual money to the boats is still up there,” said Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s state fishery manager Troy Buell.

Last year at this time approximately 17½ million pounds had been landed for a price paid to fishermen of about $63 million.

“This year we’ve got just under 14 million pounds, but the total revenue to the boats is actually better at over $83 million,” Buell said.

The structure of this season’s opening was staggered to allow crab in Oregon’s northern waters to better fill out with meat. The opening was not exactly the same as last year’s staggered opening, but close enough to make a comparison.

The season, which can open as early as Dec. 1, was delayed until Dec. 16 from the California border to Cape Falcon near Manzanita. Cape Falcon north to the Washington border opened Jan. 7.

Read the full article at KLCC 

WASHINGTON: State of Washington proposes changes to Dungeness crab fishery to reduce whale entanglement risk

February 11, 2025 — Fishery regulators in the U.S. state of Washington are considering changing the rules for its commercial Dungeness crab fisheries in an attempt to further reduce risks of whale entanglements.

The vertical lines used in American pot fisheries, including Dungeness crab fisheries, risk entangling endangered whale populations, including humpback whales on the U.S. West Coast.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

CALIFORNIA: California loves Dungeness crab. But concerns over whale safety put industry in peril

February 10, 2025 — It was a calm January morning, the waters off Bodega Bay unusually smooth, but crab fisherman Dick Ogg couldn’t shake a grim feeling that the day wouldn’t go his way.

The Dungeness crab season had opened just a few weeks earlier — two months behind schedule — and was off to a slow start. “We’re working very hard to basically get nothing,” said Ogg.

The anemic hauls so early in the season mark the latest setback for California’s commercial Dungeness crab fishery, a roughly $45-million-a-year industry that delivers one of the state’s most iconic culinary delights.

The industry’s future has been complicated by another celebrated sea creature: Each year, a number of humpback whales migrating through California’s waters to and from tropical breeding grounds get entangled in commercial crab fishing gear, encounters that often end in mutilation or death. State regulators are intent on lowering the chances of whales coming into contact with the gear.

There’s reason to be concerned.

Since 1970, when the federal government listed humpback whales as “endangered” after they were hunted to near extinction, the population has made a fragile comeback. Whales along the West Coast have recovered at an estimated annual rate of 8.2% since the 1980s, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with more than 4,500 humpback whales now feeding off California’s coast.

Read the full article at LA Times

WASHINGTON: Coastal Dungeness crab season kicks off after months of testing

February 7, 2025 — The state’s coastal commercial Dungeness crab season is underway, following months of test fishing and data gathering by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).

This year’s season opened Jan. 15 from Klipsan Beach on the Long Beach Peninsula south to Cape Falcon, Ore., including the Columbia River and Willapa Bay, and will start Feb. 11 from Klipsan Beach north to the U.S.-Canada border, including Grays Harbor, according to a news release from WDFW.

The Washington, Oregon and California fish and wildlife departments decide season openers each year as part of a tri-state agreement signed in the 1990s to cooperatively manage the West Coast Dungeness crab fishery. Per the agreement, the season can open as early as Dec. 1, but opening dates vary and are based on test fishing to determine crab condition.

Over the fall and early winter, WDFW biologists and scientific technicians collected and measured crabs aboard commercial fishing vessels the Department contracts with for test fishing. They also observed seafood processing plants as workers picked out and packed crab meat.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

WASHINGTON: Washington’s Commercial Dungeness Crab Season Launches, Tri-State Management for West Coast Fisheries

February 5, 2025 —  The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has officially commenced the state’s coastal commercial Dungeness crab season, following detailed test fishing and data analysis. Commercial fishers cast their pots in the waters stretching from Klipsan Beach on the Long Beach Peninsula down to Cape Falcon in Oregon, as of January 15, 2025. The much-anticipated crabbing also includes the Columbia River and Willapa Bay regions, while the remaining portion of the season, from Klipsan Beach to the U.S.-Canada border and encompassing Grays Harbor, kicks off on February 11, as reported by the WDFW website.

The coordination for the season’s launch is a tri-state affair, with Washington, Oregon, and California fisheries departments working together under an agreement from the 1990s that aims for cooperative management of the Dungeness crab fishery across the West Coast. The agreement outlines potential season openings as early as December 1, with actual dates hinging on the health and condition of the crabs, determined through careful test fishing. Biologists and scientific technicians from WDFW have boarded commercial vessels to collect and measure crabs, ensuring that they achieve a threshold of 23% meat recovery before officially declaring a season opener, which signifies the crabs’ readiness for the market both in terms of quantity and quality.

According to a test fishing trip out of Westport, WDFW coastal shellfish technician Clayton Parson said, “Once you hit that 23% mark, the crabs are improving every day and are ready to be harvested.” This benchmark is crucial considering the Dungeness crab’s economic significance; for instance, the 2023–24 coastal commercial season brought in $66.8 million for the state, as per the WDFW Medium article. Testament to the industry’s value is the record-setting $88.2 million from the 2021–22 season.

Read the full article at Hoodline

OREGON: Oregon issues advisory to crab fleet amid rising whale entanglements

February 5, 2025 — The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife issued an advisory to the state’s commercial Dungeness crab fleet, urging caution due to the risk of whale entanglements. The advisory follows a recent incident on January 6, when a humpback whale was reported entangled in crab gear, and comes after a record high of four whale entanglements in Oregon crab gear in 2024.

The department’s guidance, which is voluntary, advises the fleet to “remain vigilant and avoid setting gear in areas where whales are transiting or foraging to minimize risk of entanglement.” However, critics argue that these measures are insufficient.

Ben Enticknap, Oceana campaign director and senior scientist, said, “Advice to remain vigilant and keep tight lines is woefully insufficient to protect threatened and endangered whales from becoming fatally entangled in the Oregon commercial crab fishery.”

Enticknap emphasized the need for a more robust conservation plan, stating, “Oregon fish and wildlife managers must act swiftly and decisively to implement a conservation plan that reduces whale entanglements, not one that maintains the status quo.”

Read the full article at KVAL

CALIFORNIA: The $50 million question: Can California’s Dungeness crab fishery coexist with whale conservation efforts?

February 4, 2025 — At 11:59 p.m. on Jan. 4, commercial fisherman Barry Day is 10 miles off the coast of Half Moon Bay, watching the clock. One minute to go until the start of Dungeness crab season.

In the pitch black sea, Day’s radiant orange buoys bob with the promise of a payday. In total, he has set out 250 crab traps. Every buoy is attached to a thin rope that stretches 200 feet down to a cylindrical, metal-and-wire pot on the ocean floor. Day spent the previous month readying the pots: inspecting every piece of wire, splicing and joining ropes, repairing rubber wrappings, painting buoys.

Each trap costs around $300 all accounted for — $75,000 of gear now at the bottom of the ocean. Insurance for his boat and two deckhands is another $30,000. Then there’s the cost of slip space at the harbor. Thirty percent of sales goes to his crew. These are the numbers crawling in the back of his mind as the seconds tick by.

Read the full article at Palo Alto Online

Washington state officers cite group for illegal crab harvesting

January 24, 2025 — Wildlife officers from the U.S. state of Washington caught a group illegally harvesting crabs from the Puget Sound, citing them for multiple violations.

According to a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) social media post, officers spotted a group harvesting crab late in the evening off the pier in the city of Mukilteo, just north of Seattle. The officers followed one of the harvesters as they brought crab back to their vehicle, where an inspection revealed dozens of crabs inside a bag and a cooler.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource