Dungeness crab season cut short in Half Moon Bay

The CDFW is expecting humpback whales to migrate north from Mexico in the coming weeks. Bartling said the agency considered restricting crab fishers to half pots but opted against the idea in favor of ending the season early after four entanglements occurred off of the San Mateo County coast last March.

The CDFW will kick off its Lost and Abandoned Gear Retrieval Program where it removes commercial Dungeness crab pots left in the water, beginning April 21, according to CDFW’s website.

The announcement comes after the start of this year’s commercial crab season was already pushed back three times to protect the whales. Typically, the statutory commercial crab fishing season begins on Nov. 15 and closes by June 1. Adding to the stress of a shortened season, the CDFW also reduced trap sizes by 50% for fisheries south of Mendocino County to reduce the risk of entangling humpback whales who continue to migrate to their winter breeding grounds.

Small scale fisher Ruben Brasil was sitting on his boat, the Drake, Thursday afternoon waiting for an announcement after hearing a dock rumor the CDFW would issue a half pot restriction.

“I don’t want to buy $700 worth of bait if we go to half-pots. It’s not worth it for me,” Brasil said.

Brasil still has pots out in the water and the news means he will be packing up his stuff and anchoring his vessel back at the harbor. Many of the bigger vessels have already pulled their pots, Brasil said.

It’s not the only bad news on the dock. The Pacific Fishery Management Council announced the cancellation of salmon season, on March 10. Near-low record numbers in the Sacramento River and Klamath River, which had the second lowest abundance forecast since 1997, prompted the cancellation. The pause on commercial salmon fishing will hold out until April 2024.

CDFW spokesperson Jordan Traverso previously said in an email the main factors in making the determination are salmon returns.

“These fish are returning to their home rivers from birth three years ago, following their voyage out to the ocean,” Traverso said. “Three years ago we were dealing with intense drought that dried up rivers as well as climate disruption.”

Beyond the historic drought, the salmon are in a literal upstream battle fighting against barriers and dams that make it impossible for the fish to access hundreds of miles of their habitat. Traverso said the good news is there is a huge restoration project underway that will remove four dams on the Klamath River that will improve the salmon’s health.

With the salmon season canceled, many of the fishers out of the harbor will need to pivot to fishing for lingcod and rockfish to make a living. Brasil said he won’t be one of them. Doing so requires a deep nearshore permit and he doesn’t have the wherewithal for the permit or the equipment to keep up with the larger vessels, he said.

However, Rob Kraencke, who fishes off of the Lady LeBlanc and the Bernice boats, said he is one of the luckier smaller vessels who does have the permit but the cards are still not necessarily in his favor. The best case scenario, he said, is that he breaks even to pay his bills. The problem with being a smaller boat fishing for lingcod and rockfish is he has to compete with bigger vessels who cast nets. Kraencke said he trolls and primarily fishes on his own.

“A big vessel can catch 10,000 pounds in a few hours with those nets,” Kraencke said. “I would be lucky to get that amount in a season, let alone a few hours.”

The quantity difference means he sells most of his fish off the dock to consumers for $5 to $8 per pound. Meanwhile, his big vessel competitors can sell in quantity to the fisheries for .50 cents per pound, a price Kraencke said he can’t afford.

The best way for the community to support the local fishers, Kraencke said, is to go to the dock and buy fish off their boats on the weekend mornings. He added he learned a few tips on how to cook lingcod.

“I like to make fish tacos with it,” Kraencke said. “A chef friend of mine gave me a few tips. He said use peanut oil to fry it quickly and give it that nice sear. Also, you need a good salsa.”