Bay Area restaurants, fishermen adjust as commercial Dungeness crabbing season pushed back

By Da Lin

Bay Area seafood lovers hoping to serve fresh Dungeness crab for Thanksgiving or Christmas are out of luck again this year. California officials have postponed the commercial crabbing season once more because of the ongoing risk of whale entanglements off the Northern California coast.

At the docks near San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf, crab pots are sitting idle.

The delay doesn’t come as a surprise, as the season has been pushed back four or five years in a row, but commercial fishermen said that doesn’t soften the economic blow.

San Francisco fisherman David Kemp pointed to his worn work clothes as a sign of how tough things have gotten. 

“Look at me, I’ve got holes in my shirt. We’re barely holding onto our businesses,” he said.

It’s been a particularly rough year for Bay Area fishing crews. The state cancelled the commercial salmon season entirely, and now they’re missing out on the busy holiday demand for crab, one of their biggest revenue drivers.

“Who really misses out is the public,” Kemp said. “If they get crab that comes out of San Francisco, it’s been in a freezer for six months or eight months. If they get crab that comes out of Puget Sound, they’re paying $15.99 a pound.”

Most of the crab currently available in local markets and restaurants is coming from Washington state, driving prices up and profits down for local businesses.

“That means we’re probably going to be closed on Thanksgiving because people don’t come down here for turkey,” said Eli Fowler, a manager at Capurro’s Restaurant. “So that hurts us for Thanksgiving and [Christmas].”

He added, “It’s bad for business and it really just hurts Fisherman’s Wharf as a whole.”

Environmental advocates said the delay is necessary to protect endangered marine life.

“Anytime that they entangle more than three endangered humpback whales in a single year, the season will be delayed until the following year,” said Dr. Geoff Shester, Director of Fishery Innovation and senior scientist at Oceana. “There were four whales confirmed entangled in Dungeness crab fishing gear over the last year.”

Shester said a solution is on the horizon. The state is expected to approve new “pop-up” gear for the spring season, a technology that uses GPS and acoustic triggers to raise buoys and ropes only when harvesting pots, eliminating vertical lines in the water that whales and sea turtles can get caught in.

“This new technology has been tested successfully and shown to work in a limited context over the last few years,” Shester said. “We’re hopeful that this spring, that will be an option to allow these fishermen to stay on the water and really prevent further entanglements at the same time.”

But affordability is a major concern.

“I can’t be optimistic,” Kemp said. “Right now, there’s nothing to be optimistic about.” 

He worries his boat is too small — and his finances too stretched — to invest in entirely new equipment.

The state said the earliest possible opening for the commercial Dungeness crab season would be in early January. Recreational crabbing, however, will still open Nov. 1 in some areas, including waters off San Francisco.