Pillar Point Harbor bustles as crabbing opens: Commercial fishermen preparing for short Dungeness season

Fish and wildlife officials announced the season would finally open south of the Mendocino-Sonoma County line since tests have shown the popular Dungeness crabs are no longer tainted by unsafe levels of domoic acid — a neurotoxin linked to a large algae bloom exacerbated by warmer waters.

Despite the biggest Thanksgiving and New Year’s markets having already passed since the season failed to kick off in November, many are hungry for a piece of this year’s catch.

Porter McHenry, captain of the Merva W and president of the Half Moon Bay Seafood Marketing Association, said he’s eager to put his crew to work and locals are rushing to get ready after being given just a week’s notice.

“We’ll probably be sea sick because we’ve had so much time off,” McHenry said. “I think everybody’s itching to go, everybody’s been sitting around waiting. … Everybody’s excited to put some crab on the market and it’s about time.”

In typical form, the sport fishermen got a week’s head start with many venturing out last weekend. Even pop star Justin Bieber hailed a ride out of Pillar Point for a little crabbing courtesy of Tom Mattusch’s charter boat the Huli Cat before performing in the Bay Area last Friday.

But with weather forecasts predicting rougher seas this coming weekend, not all might make it out as soon as they’re allowed.

Jim Salter, captain of the Westerly who’s been fishing out of Pillar Point for 40 years, said smaller boats like his may not go crabbing until the weather calms down and, this late in the season, he’s not expecting to make a full recovery from the naturally occurring phenomenon.

“You’re just trying to cut your losses, that’s all you can do,” Salter said after loading pots onto his boat Monday. “Domoic is something that’s always been in nature, but no one has gotten sick from it in California. But we didn’t want someone to get sick, so that’s why we believe in an abundance of caution.”

Jim Anderson, captain of the Allaine and a local representative on the state’s Dungeness Crab Task Force, said the extremely unusual circumstances clouding this season makes it hard to predict what will happen next. Only time will tell how bountiful the crab is and fishermen still need to negotiate with buyers over price, he added.

Even if they fish until the end of season that runs through June, there’s little chance anyone will be able to make up for the more than four-month loss.

“There’s no way to make up for what we lost, that’s why they went after disaster money, because we lost that Christmas, Thanksgiving, Chinese New Year market, all those times of year are gone,” Anderson said. “We traditionally harvest most of our crab by this point in the year.”

In response to the multi-million dollar industry and thousands whose livelihoods depend on the season, Gov. Jerry Brown has asked the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to declare a fishery disaster.

U.S. Rep Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, and U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., proposed legislation to appropriate $138.5 million for disaster assistance to California Dungeness and rock crab fishermen and related businesses.

But before Congress can vote on the proposed Crab Emergency Disaster Assistance Act of 2016, the Secretary of Commerce must first agree to Brown’s request.

In the meantime, those with businesses relying on the season can apply for low-interest loans of up to $2 million through the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Anderson noted boat captains, fish buyers and others who run crab-related businesses could now find themselves struggling to staff their operations.

“To be this late in the game, it’s been five months so a lot of the crew guys had to go get jobs and if they have a reasonably good job, with what’s been going on with this opener, it will be interesting to see if they leave their jobs to go fishing,” Anderson said.

Most who work out of Pillar Point Harbor rely heavily on crab and salmon seasons to sustain through the year. As the state is anticipated to announce cutbacks on salmon season due to the ongoing drought drying up rivers that serve as critical habitat, this year could be a double whammy for fishermen across the state.

“If crabbing’s bad and salmon’s bad, most people have those two permits and usually if one is decent it gets you by,” McHenry said, noting rumors are there’s not going to be a full salmon season either. “Whenever there’s time that you’re not allowed to fish, it makes it really tough.”

Those interested in buying fresh crab directly off the boat from local fishermen are encouraged to download the FishLine App from the iTunes store for info on which boats are selling.

samantha@smdailyjournal.com

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