Local crabbers and fishermen struggle to make ends meet due to stormy weather, a delayed fishing season, and a new state mandate.
On Dec. 26, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) announced that fisheries stretching roughly from Bodega Bay to Point Conception would finally open on Dec. 31, but now under one condition—crabbers and fishers are required to limit the use of crab traps and gear they throw in the water by 50 percent.
Longtime Morro Bay crabber Jeff French said the new rules set by the Department of Fish and Wildlife put crabbers and fishers at a disadvantage.
“Our costs are going to be basically the same, except that now we’re expected to make a living on half of our normal gear allotment and we have to pay for tags or licenses every other year for our traps,” French said. “And so we’re going to be paying for the amount of time, I’m sure we’re going to be paying for formatting tags and licenses, but we’re only going to have half the access.”
Aerial surveys taken by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Dec. 13 indicated 24 humpback whales in fishing zone 3, which stretches from Point Arena to Half Moon Bay.
“Entanglement triggers for humpback whales have been reached for the current
calendar year,” CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham wrote in a statement. “I must implement a protective management action in the commercial Dungeness crab fishery.”
This is the first time CDFW has implemented a 50 percent gear reduction, something that San Francisco-based fisherman and crabber John Mellor said will cut their income in half.
“You know, a lot of us would prefer to have waited until they could see that the whales are gone and we could use all [the] gear even if it meant waiting for an extra week or so,” Mellor said. “It didn’t really matter what most of us wanted. I think the department made the decision that they wanted to try this 50 percent gear reduction. So that’s kind of what we’re stuck with.”
Mellor founded the Dungeness Crab Gear Working Group in 2015, an organization comprising commercial and recreational fishermen, environmental organization representatives, members of the disentanglement network, and state and federal agencies. The group worked to address an increase in whale entanglements, promote good fishing practices, and create awareness about the fishing industry.
In 2017, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit against CDFW, claiming that Dungeness crabbing was at fault for a surge in whale entanglements. Mellor said that after the lawsuit, the relationship between the CDFW and fisherman changed, which caused the CDFW to create what Mellor called “draconian regulations.” For example, in whale entanglement situations, Mellor said that Dungeness crabbers can be held liable for any sort of rope or gear found on the whale, even unknown gear.
“If the stakes are so high for us to where even if the whale is successfully disentangled, it can still potentially close our season down and can really disincentivize people to report entangled whales because we could be out of business because of it,” Mellor said.
Fishermen and crabbers aren’t the only ones impacted by the regulations. Rules and regulations drive up the costs of fish for consumers. Giovanni’s Fish Market owner Giovanni DeGarimore said that increased costs for local crabs force them to import seafood from out of state to meet consumer demand, which can increase prices by up to 50 percent.
“We’ve been dealing with this for multiple years now, so it doesn’t take us by surprise. We are prepared for any eventuality, meaning that we’ve been sourcing crab out of Washington,” DeGarimore said. “That’s something we’ve done year after year after year. Our customers demand crab year round so we can’t wait on California to twiddle their thumbs and decide on when to open the season due to whales.”
Crab season traditionally opens up on Nov. 15, and repeated delays impact the number of crabs and fish that Morro Bay crabber French can catch, due to factors such as the natural migratory and breeding cycles of the crustaceans.
“And when the crab goes in their mating cycle, they don’t trap anymore. We get pushed up against March during the mating season, and then it’s almost impossible to catch crab,” French said. “The whole thing gets squished. We’re pretty efficient at getting the crab, but we do need some time to find them, market them, and everything else.”
While the rules and regulations are intended to protect a now growing whale population, French said that they have a negative effect on the fishing industry.
“It creates instability in the market and it does make it so we can’t promise the buyers we’re going to have crab for the holidays,” French said. “They can’t promise their customers or the retailers they’re going to have the product that they can sell it, therefore getting the product late weakens our market position.”
Reach Staff Writer Shwetha Sundarrajan at shwetha@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jan 5-15, 2023.
I wonder how the whales will be effected by the off shore wind farms? Oh wait, thats’ “Green” energy. Never mind.
Sorry guys but maybe think of other ways to support your family, like the whalers had to. I am NOT going to eat crab etc., if you are going to kill these amazing, intelligent whales. We are over fishing and crabbing anyway. Give nature a break or nature will break you!
Hard to understand how anybody could be part of this harmful practice. I look forward to a time when men get over such depletion of our precious mother ocean. Maybe think about something besides just themselves. The suffering of an entangled whale hurts to think about. The wastefulness of dumping tons of crabs overboard to keep the prices high is greed at its worst.
Joseph John Racano
I sympathize with the fishermen (and love local Dungeness crab), but whales need protection too. This kind of “dollars vs nature” dilemma is becoming more common everywhere, all the time, thanks to our leadership’s devotion to the twin capitalist myths of endless population growth and endless economic growth. These fables, which are necessary to feed the insatiable greed of the super-rich, require overexploitation and destruction of our natural resources. Do you really want to protect whales? Impose serious, meaningful restrictions on global commercial and military shipping, which kill far more whales than crabbing does. Oh wait – the billionaires wouldn’t like it. Never mind.