Saving Seafood

CALIFORNIA: Crab fishing closures recommended after whale entanglements

March 23, 2022 — Two humpback whales were tangled in fishing gear off central California in recent days and state wildlife officials are recommending commercial Dungeness crab fishing be suspended to reduce the risk of more entanglements as the whales migrate north.

One humpback was caught in commercial crab nets off Moss Beach, just north of Half Moon Bay, on March 17. Two days later, a second whale was spotted trailing a set of crabbing lines in Monterey Bay, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a statement.

Wildlife officials on Monday recommended commercial Dungeness crab fishing from Monterey Bay, south of San Francisco, to the Mexican border stop on April 8. The closures wouldn’t affect recreational Dungeness crab fishing.

Read the full story at the Sacramento Bee

CALIFORNIA: Half Moon Bay fishermen frustrated over crab season delay

November 17, 2020 — Fishermen in the Half Moon Bay area are frustrated and anxious to start Dungeness crab fishing season after California postponed the start from Nov. 15 to Dec. 1 due to 50 humpback whales off the coast.

The postponed crab season is meant to protect whales and sea turtles from becoming entangled or captured in fishing gear. The protected crab fishing zones run from Mendocino County down to Mexico.

Scott Edson, a fisherman who fishes in Bodega Bay and Half Moon Bay, said the delays are becoming the norm every year. He used to go out in November, but he now wonders if he will ever go crab fishing before Thanksgiving. One of his biggest concerns is the weather now that they will start in December. Bad weather leads to an increased risk of rolling the boat over, putting a crew and boat in danger. The local boats in his area are smaller, and they struggle to compete with large companies and other boats from Eureka and Washington.

“It’s definitely difficult the later and later it goes. The weather gets so much worse. It just gets dicey being out there. We’re holding out hope it will be Dec. 1,” Edson said. “There’s a point where you can do the job, but it becomes really dangerous to do, and you have to call it.”

Read the full story at The Daily Journal

CALIFORNIA: Start of commercial crab season to be delayed

November 6, 2019 — Another year, another delay to the start of commercial crab season..

This year’s commercial Dungeness crab season will be pushed forward a week to Nov. 22 in an effort to decrease the chances of whales currently off the coast getting ensnarled by fishing lines, according the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

California’s famed Dungeness crab extravaganza has in recent years been a tale of great anticipation, felled hopes, occasional health warnings, season-opener delays and more. Last year, after a three-year spate of seasons put on hold, the commercial season got underway in mid-November, again marked by high hopes for the fisherman shoving off from Half Moon Bay.

Read the full story at The Mercury News

California crabbers use GPS to find whale-killing gear

September 14, 2017 — HALF MOON BAY, Calif. — Fisherman Jake Bunch leans over the side of the fishing boat “Sadie K,” spears his catch, and reels it aboard: an abandoned crab pot, dangling one limp lasagna noodle of kelp and dozens of feet of rope, just the kind of fishing gear that has been snaring an increasing number of whales off U.S. coasts.

Confirmed counts of humpbacks, blue and other endangered or threatened species of whale entangled by the ropes, buoys and anchors of fishing gear hit a record 50 on the East Coast last year, and tied the record on the West Coast at 48, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The accidental entanglements can gouge whales’ flesh and mouth, weaken the animals, drown them, or kill them painfully, over months.

This year, Bunch is one of a small number of commercial fishermen out of Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, and five other ports up and down California who headed to sea again after the West Coast’s Dungeness crab season ended this summer.

The California fishermen are part of a new effort using their cellphones’ GPS and new software pinpointing areas where lost or abandoned crabbing gear has been spotted. They retrieve the gear for a payment — at Half Moon Bay, it’s $65 per pot —before the fishing ropes can snag a whale.

Especially stormy weather this year has meant more wayward crabbing gear than usual, Bunch said recently on a gray late-summer morning at sea.

“Makes it all the more important to pick it up,” he says.

Read the full story at the News & Observer

CALIFORNIA: Plentiful anchovies far from collapse

November 10, 2015 — I’ve been fishing for more than 50 years up and down the West Coast and I’m shocked at all the hysterical claims I’ve read in the media recently about the anchovy “collapse.” Much of the hype stemmed from an anchovy study still in peer review, but the truth of the matter is that its conclusions are disastrously wrong!

I’m one of a handful of fishermen who fish anchovy in Monterey. I’m on the water nearly every day and I’ve seen a big surge in the anchovy population in recent years. Anchovies now stretch from the “pinheads” fishermen see in Southern California all the way up the coast past Half Moon Bay, where a large group of whales was recently spotted feeding on anchovies.

Read the full story at Monterey Herald