May 5, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Fishing regulators say there will be a new limit on how many Jonah crabs fishermen will be allowed to harvest.
East Coast fishermen’s catch of Jonah crabs has been growing in recent years as the crustacean grows in popularity.
They are used in processed products and as an alternative to the more expensive Dungeness and stone crabs.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the San Francisco Chronicle
BERKLEY, Calif. (March 22, 2016) — Dungeness crabs caught off the coast of California south of the Mendocino-Sonoma County line have been deemed safe for consumption, California Department of Fish and Wildlife officials announced Friday. Recent tests showed that domoic acid levels in crabs in the area no longer pose a risk to human health, prompting state officials to lift a closure of the recreational Dungeness crab fishery.
Additionally, a closure of the commercial Dungeness crab fishery in the area will also be lifted on March 26, according to the CDFW. Closure for the Dungeness crab commercial and recreational fisheries north of the Mendocino-Sonoma County line remain in effect. Commercial and recreational rock crab fisheries, however, remain closed north of San Simeon, as well as in state waters around San Miguel, Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz islands, CDFW officials said.
The commercial crab season was initially scheduled to start Nov. 17, but remained closed after public health officials determined crabs had high levels of domoic acid, a neurotoxin that can be harmful to humans if eaten. Domoic acid is caused by an algal bloom.
December 3, 2015 — What many Americans consider to be a cute, back-floating mammal is a pest, even a thief, to some Southeast Alaskan fishermen.
Humans and sea otters enjoy consuming the same bottom-dwelling seafood: Dungeness crabs, clams, sea cucumbers and urchins. Competition between dive fishermen and sea otters for those resources has intensified as the otter population grows.
Wadley has been a commercial sea cucumber diver for 27 years. She dove for abalone until the dive fishery closed in 1996.
“We had an abalone fishery here until the otters ate us out of it,” she said. “And then I switched about the time that the abalone fishery was dying, the sea cucumbers started up.”
A paper published by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in 2014 says the sea otter population is growing by 12 to 14 percent a year. And more otters mean an expansion of their range.
Many sea cucumber, clam and urchin dive fishing areas have been closed to commercial fishing because of sea otters, Wadley said.
They eat immense amounts of seafood and seem to have the leading edge on humans.
It wasn’t easy starting out as a female fisherman, Wadley said. She was inexperienced — green but eager. A diver with a good reputation eventually agreed to take her out for abalone.
“I ended up getting more poundage than the rest of the divers put together,” she said.
Now Wadley owns her own 45-foot boat named “Vulcan.” She has a sea cucumber quota and manages her own personal dive fishing operation. Wadley and one other person take her boat out for seven-hour fishery openings.
Read the full story at Alaska Public Media