2024 Comerical Crab season closes April 4th (Northern Managment Area)

https://wildlife.ca.gov/News/Archive/cdfw-closes-commercial-dungeness-crab-fishery-and-restricts-recreational-crab-traps-in-the-central-management-area-limits-commercial-fishing-to-inside-30-f#gsc.tab=0

CDFW Closes Commercial Dungeness Crab Fishery and Restricts Recreational Crab Traps in the Central Management Area, Limits Commercial Fishing to inside 30-Fathoms in Northern Management Area to Protect Whales from Entanglement

So the “problem” isn’t a shortage of whales but rather an abundance of whales. Doesn’t seem to matter whether “conservation” efforts are successful or not, the “remedy” is always reduced opportunity. It just doesn’t seem like we are dealing with traditional efforts to preserve fisheries and protect endangered populations anymore. It’s becoming something closer to not wanting to hurt Mother Nature’s feelings, 

I am sure not a popular response but enjoying 5 months of crab is more than enough for me(sport). Just my opinion. I guess my opinion would change with season not opening in November as scheduled.

I think it is more of a hit for commercial guys.

I am sure not a popular response but enjoying 5 months of crab is more than enough for me(sport). Just my opinion.

I think it is more of a hit for commercial guys.

Definitely a hit for the commercial guys. Especially after a relatively rough season already. Short season, low prices. Tough times to fish commercially.

As long as they don't come up with that ridiculous proposal of ropeless remote traps. Then its all over.

The only real drag with ropeless, remote traps is they do not interfere with the whales, so the crab season will be longer,  This will fulfill the new delicacy, crab legs, more crabs will be caught, then sent overseas, where there is a higher profit to be made, the commercial industry will make major bucks and our crab population will decline dramatically to feed the overseas population, oh well, R.

Last I seen mentioned they are priced out of range for most sport crabbers, let alone trying to purchase numerous ones.

On top of a 20% loss rate in a opinion I read.

On CBS this morning they were talking about it and mentioning that some commercial crabbers participated in a time release buoy deployment system trial and that they were happy with the results.  Trying to lend credibility to the plans they have mentioned in prior statements as a possible solution.  Sounds expensive, but would allow longer seasons.  Still costs will go up either way I'm sure.

Would like to point out that I pretty much called this one back in February here: https://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=101753.msg1138991#msg1138991

The environmentalist left is a giant hive brain. When you see articles by “journalists” making whale entanglements a cause celeb, as I pointed out,  that’s just little drone bees doing their part of the activism. Their counterparts, elected officials in west coast states and the appointees they load regulatory agencies with, are just another part of the same hive brain, doing their part to reduce human interaction with nature.

There’s no need for these people to even collaborate or conspire because they all have the same religion, which consists of proclaiming themselves “helpers” by engaging in their favorite activity, which is controlling others in the name of their earth god.

Obviously I’m using some provocative language to make a point. Fishing and crabbing are under assault, and it’s not because of any fish/crab/whale stocks being in danger. It's not cute anymore for people to be naive enough to trust good intentions. People need to actually figure out how things work.

The people who reduce fishing opportunities do so because that is what gives their lives meaning and makes them feel important. Bargaining or compromising just slows it down a little. Do not assume good intentions or candor are guiding these folks as they do not state their goals plainly; rather they claim they aren’t doing what they are doing, tell you you’re conspiratorial if you notice, then tell you after they are done how grateful you should be.

Vegetable or meat farms, orchards, whatever required clearing forest or grassland of some sort. Commercial fishing produces bycatch and sometimes that's a whale. These have been facts of human life since the dawn of time. Banning human activities and access to resources because the occasional entangled whale makes for a sad story is child-level understanding of the world, but here we are losing a whole  tradition.

Families in Cali enjoyed crabs on Thanksgiving for years, and that tradition has effectively been destroyed. If west coast states keep electing the same kind of people, more nice things that people enjoy will be banned. Cali passes about 1000 laws a year under its current governance, and the hyper-regulatory fisheries management is just following suit. You don't get to pretend you didn't contribute to the reduction in fishing and crabbing opportunities if you voted for the people who've been running the state.

They’re pulling this off on the East coast as well with da commercial lobstah’ fisherman as well. 

On a side note, Target and Safeway just got noticed for overcharging consumers on staple stuff.  All consumer pricing for our home economies will steadily rise.   

Growing stuff or harvesting proteins for our own personal use by our own efforts will eventually be on the chopping block but hopefully not in my lifetime.  Our kids will figure it out but it might get ugly.  Progress is regress in my opinion.

Hope to meetcha on da wattah some day da gophah’ brah!

Folks interested in learning more about humpback whales, their status, and where these new crabbing regulations come from, can check out the most recent humpback whale stock assessment here: https://media.fisheries.noaa.gov/2022-08/2021-HumpbackWhale-CaliforniaOregonWashington%20Stock.pdf

The CA/OR/WA Stock of humpback whales was recently removed from the Endangered Species Act, but is still protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). The stock is considered "depleted", meaning the stock is considered below its optimum sustainable production. The 2022 stock assessment estimates the CA/OR/WA population to consist of a little under 5,000 whales. The stock is growing at a rate of about 8.2% per year.

The potential biological removal (PBR) level is defined by the MMPA as the maximum number of animals, not including natural mortalities, that may be removed from a marine mammal stock while allowing that stock to reach or maintain its optimum sustainable population (https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/laws-and-policies/glossary-marine-mammal-protection-act#strategic-and-depleted-stocks). The PBR for the CA/OR/WA humpback stock within US waters (within 200 miles of land) is 29.4 whales per year.

According to the stock assessment, commercial fisheries impart a 24.9 PBR per year on the whales. Estimated vessel strikes are 22 PBR per year. Throw in the 1.4 PBR for "non-commercial sources", and the total PBR is 48.3 humpback whales annually. The commercial fisheries PBR consists of documented incidents, and does not account for the undocumented mortality or serious injuries that go unreported, so it's a conservative PBR.

All that being said, the stock assessment says this at the end: "Despite impacts of anthropogenic-related serious injury and mortality of humpback whales along the U.S. West Coast, the number of humpback whales in the region has been increasing at 8.2% annually since the late 1980s (Calambokidis and Barlow 2020)."

Thanks for that summary. Very interesting that the population is growing what seems rapidly to me for such a long-lived species despite far exceeding the estimated PBR. It seems that the estimated the PBR is too conservative and that they must not be using the real data on current mortality and population growth in their models. Disappointing.

Thanks for that summary. Very interesting that the population is growing what seems rapidly to me for such a long-lived species despite far exceeding the estimated PBR. It seems that the estimated the PBR is too conservative and that they must not be using the real data on current mortality and population growth in their models. Disappointing.

For sure. Yeah, they say there's no methodology in place for estimating the number of undocumented/unreported mortalities and serious injuries stemming from commercial fisheries, so it's definitely a conservative figure. From the assessment: "Based on strandings and at-sea observations, annual humpback whale mortality and serious injury in commercial fisheries (24.9/yr) is less than the PBR of 29.4; however, if methods were available to correct for undetected serious injury and mortality, total fishery mortality and serious injury would likely exceed PBR. Observed and assigned levels of serious injury and mortality due to commercial fisheries (24.9) exceed 10% of the stock’s PBR (29.4), thus, commercial fishery take levels are not approaching zero mortality and serious injury rate."

If I were a commercial crabber and witnessed a humpback whale tangled in my gear, would I want to report it if I thought it could eat into my bottom line and affect my livelihood? It's an ethical and moral dilemma for sure.

The 8.2% annual population growth is really interesting. I wouldn't expect that with such a classic case of a K-selected species either, especially with the exceedance in PBR.

Is it really that big of a hit to commercial fishermen?  80% of the yearly commercial landings are caught in the first month of their season.  And by now commercial boats have transitioned to other fisheries.

-Allen

Regarding the West Coast commercial Dungeness crab fishery, participation in the fishery has steadily declined over the years (https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/california-dungeness-crab-pot-fishery-mmpa-list-fisheries). The fishery had 1,475 participants in 1996. As of 2022, the fishery has 471 participants, a decline of about 68%. Despite the decline in participants, catch rates have remained relatively steady over the last couple decades (https://marinespecies.wildlife.ca.gov/dungeness-crab/the-fishery/). Dungeness crab roughly follow a seven-year population cycle, with "highs" in the cycle equating to high catch rates and "lows" equating to, well, low catches. There's a cool bar graph in the first link where you can spot the seven-year cycle.

The Dungeness crab fishery is arguably the most productive fishery on the West Coast (https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/west-coast-dungeness-crab-stable-or-increasing-even-intensive-harvest-research-shows). Commercial fishing catches nearly all the legal-sized male Dungeness crab every year for the last several decades, yet the population appears stable or even increasing. From the link: "The secret to the success of the Dungeness crab fishery may be the way fishing regulations protect the crab populations’ reproductive potential. Male Dungeness crabs mature and begin reproducing one to two years before they can be caught, so crabs can reproduce even with heavy fishing pressure. Female Dungeness crab can store sperm for more than a year, allowing them to reproduce even in the absence of numerous males."

Given that it's a limited entry fishery, coupled with relatively low prices in recent years, the only way I can see the fishery being overexploited is if there was a sudden surge in demand that caused prices to increase and thereby spur more fishermen to partake in the fishery. The numbers don't really point to that scenario happening anytime soon though. The way the fishery is managed, the sublegal male crabs have one or two years to spawn before they're legal to harvest. One can argue that it's the most well-managed fishery in the country.