Can You Pool Your Crabs?

June 11, 2009

Question: I would like to know the boat limit for taking crab other than Dungeness. I plan to have between two to four people (all with fishing licenses) on my private boat and need to know the answer to this question. Thank you very much for your response. (Jay T.)

Answer: You may not pool your crabs since boat limits apply only to finfish and not to invertebrates. With crabs, individual bag and possession limits apply. For crabs of the Cancer genus (excluding Dungeness crabs) including yellow crabs, rock crabs, red crabs and slender crabs, the limit is 35 crabs per person. Each crab must measure a minimum of four inches from edge of shell to edge of shell.

There is no minimum size on rock crab in Humboldt Bay.

Let's say you're crabbing with four friends on your 20' powerboat.  You're going for rock crab.  You take 175 rock crab.  This post is saying that those crab may not be mixed together in one livewell or other containment area?  That's ludicrous.

Yes, it's also ludicrous to take 175 rock crab, but the point here is that the answer to this question is impractical.  Here's why - if with finfish you're able to throw everybody's catch in one containment area (large cooler, whatever...) and then divide them up later, why on earth would you not be able to do that with crabs which are much more hazardous to have in multiple containments?  ESPECIALLY when you probably used a davit to pull your pots up with in the first place?!  The davit part is about this:  it was probably the captain or only certain members of the expedition who utilized the davit and actually handled the crabs.

Many of the questions are hooey, and many of the answers as well.  IMOpinionatedView.

This is news to me. During the crab opener, 5 of us threw 50 Dungeness crabs into the same livewell. And the DFG officer did not say a thing about it. But he did pull ALL the crabs out of the livewell during the count.

I don't think this is "pool" as in sharing the same container.  I think this is "pool" as in sharing that catch ala boat limits.  This doesn't prevent pulling your own limits and putting them all in the same livewell.

-Allen

I've never seen anyone comply with this interpretation. I've never heard of a ticket issued for doing it either.

How in the world would you differentiate which crab is whose? I don't know how the party crabbing goes, does the captain designate pots to individuals and then that's their catch only? Would it be illegal to help someone pull their pot, say someone having trouble pulling a full or heavy pot, especially if the individual helping is limited on crab?

Makes no sense at all unless you are out with a group with kayaks and storing all the crabs in one of guys holds. On a small boat even if they say boat limits are not in effect the act of crabbing from a boat is a mutual event. One guy pilots one guy pulls one guy measures and returns traps. I suppose if one of the licensed parties were in the cabin watching Debbie Does Dallas boat limits wouldn't be in effect but on just about all other circumstances they basically are because all parties materially participate even if it is just spotting a buoy..

Where this isn't the case is on a party boat where the captain just hands you the crabs from the pots the crew sets and have been soaking for a day or days.