By DANA TIMS/YachatsNews
Oregon’s commercial Dungeness crab fishery, after passing a new round of testing, will open Sunday, Jan. 15 from Manzanita to south of Coos Bay, state regulators announced Friday.
The season will open Feb. 1 from Cape Falcon, which is near Manzanita, north to the state of Washington, in accordance with testing protocols established by an agency that includes representatives from Oregon, Washington and California.
The season could have opened as early as Dec. 1 had testing gone differently.
The green light to open the state’s most valuable single fishery came after a third round of testing showed both that meat “pick-out” rates are above required levels, and that a type of acid associated with harmful algal blooms are below alert levels in all crab tested from Cape Arago north to Cape Falcon. Cape Arago is 15 miles south of Coos Bay.
Testing for domoic acid will continue from Cape Arago south to the California border. Test results released Friday showed elevated levels of the biotoxin in that area, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said.
Crabbers are allowed to dump — or “soak” — their pots four days before the first pull on Jan. 15.
Tim Novotny, communications manager with the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission, welcomed the announcement.
“Look, everyone wants to start Dec. 1,” Novotny said in a statement. “But the fishermen know that this process sets a high bar on purpose, so consumers know they’re getting the highest quality and safest possible product.”
Caren Braby, who oversees marine resources for ODFW, agreed.
“I’m proud of the crab fishery and our management of this iconic symbol of the Oregon coast,” she said. “By working with industry on the problems we’ve faced – from biotoxins, whale entanglements, and climate change – we’re crafting a stronger fishery that will stand the test of time.”
Smaller crabbers irate
Still, a portion of the state’s 300-boat commercial fleet made it clear in a letter to state regulators this week that the closure has already cost boat owners and consumers, while potentially putting fishing boats and crews at risk.
The 12-page letter, sent to Braby, said the closure “has caused severe hardship on multiple fronts.”
By delaying a season that could have legally started Dec. 1, boat owners and crews have now missed their peak sales times of both Christmas and New Year, said the letter, which was signed by nearly 10 percent of the state’s permitted commercial fleet.
The state’s decision to delay the season’s start until Jan. 15 means that the fleet will land its largest volumes during the post-Chinese New Year’s “slump,” when prices typically drop as much as half to three- quarters in a single week, according to the letter.
“The resulting losses to fishers cannot be recovered and will impose severe hardship on small fishers and their families throughout Oregon,” it said.
The Dungeness crab harvest is the state’s most valuable, averaging $60 million a year – but reaching as high as $91.5 million last season when it opened Dec. 1.
This season, state regulators officially delayed the Dec. 1 start date after initial rounds of testing showed both elevated levels of domoic acid and low meat pick-out percentages. Later tests moved the opening to Dec. 31, then a third round to no earlier than Jan. 15.
But the signers of the letter said Thursday that diminished levels of domoic acid in subsequent tests, along with findings of sufficient meat pick-out percentages in nine of the 12 testing zones for Dungeness crab, should have provided the state with sufficient proof that crabbing could open along large portions of the Oregon coast.
“Even if we start on time Dec. 1, extended closures like this represent a significant chunk of our season,” said Levi Cherry, whose company, Cherry Fisheries, runs two crabbing boats out of Garibaldi. “We all have mortgages, boat payments and employees to take care of. To anyone who asks, I’d say, take 45 days off your job without pay and let me know how that goes.”
Looking ahead, boats will now have to face far worse weather than they would have earlier in December, he said.
“Even if we open tomorrow, we will be fishing in the hardest and nastiest weather we’ve had so far this winter,” Cherry said. “Conditions that were two- to six-foot swells and no wind will now be 20-foot swells. As captains, we’ll make those decisions. I just hope we aren’t looking at tragedy.”
ODFW defends decision
Meghan Dugan, who serves as the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s west region and marine resources communications specialist, addressed the crab fishers’ letter by saying, “We will take it into consideration in season opening in the coming days, along with input from the entire fleet” (which includes 424 permittees and six major ports.) We’ve had a challenging situation with low meat fill in some areas, high biotoxins in some areas, and so testing has extended past the first possible season start.”
She said the agency agency works under a regional decision-making group, including Washington and California, “gathering input from the commercial Dungeness crab industry fleet and the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission for deciding the crab season opening date(s).”
The timing of the start of the commercial crab season is so important to the fleet because the bulk of the catch usually occurs in the opening weeks of the season. Of the nearly 18 million pounds of crab caught last year, for instance, about 13 million pounds were landed in the first month.
“Then it halves down every month until the season ends in June,” Cherry said. “So it’s abundantly clear why we need to get our boats into the water as early as possible.”
In the past decade, on-time season openings have been the exception, not the rule. Pre-season testing of acid levels and meat yields have prevented the season opening on the first potential start date of Dec. 1 in seven of the past eight years and 2021 was the first time since 2014 the fishery opened Dec. 1, the ODFW said.
During 2020-2021, the season opened in stages — Dec. 16, 2020 south of Cape Falcon and Feb. 15, 2021 north of Cape Falcon. Fishermen brought in 12.2 million pounds of Dungeness crab coastwide with a value of $60.6 million. The 2021-2022 season brought in just over 17 million pounds of crab with a $91.5 million ex-vessel value.
- Dana Tims is an Oregon freelance writer who contributes regularly to YachatsNews.com. He can be reached at DanaTims24@gmail.com
I feel for the boat/ crabbers but just looking at the dollar figures and not looking at the toxins but mostly not full crabs is no reason to open up the season before these issues are met. No reason to meet tonnage if you have to harvest more crabs that are half full to meet that goal. Thankfully the fish and wildlife commission looks at the sustainability of crabbing on the coast.
I for one, I am glad there are regulations; without them people would be sick and people would be upset that their crabs weren’t full. Let’s face it it’s nice to have the privilege to get your own crab.
It’s fishing! All a commercial fisherman can hope for is to get back to broke. Maybe get something to eat along the way. The guys who knew what they were doing during the 2021-22 crab season definitely got back to broke.
The issue isn’t soft crab or biotoxins. Crab in two-thirds of the state were hard prior to Dec. 1 were enough to put on the market and meet ODFW criteria, and the only ‘dirty’ crab with biotoxins has only been in one small area near Bandon. Ultimately, within ODFW’s rules, the season should have been opened from Charleston to Manzanita back in early December, but ODFW kept it closed because a couple of large corporations wanted the opportunity to sell their freezer crab from last year without superior quality competition from this years catch. At a handy profit, I might add. Bottom line, ODFW didn’t follow their own rules, cost the coast millions, and put fishermen’s lives at risk, in order to enrich big corporations.
That’s very interesting and some big accusations. Siting the sources for this information is necessary when making such extraordinary claims. Otherwise it’s just mud flinging. I’m wondering if the problems affecting the Alaskan crab fishery is starting to show up here also.
Astonishing how humans continue to take risks they can’t control. As a local consumer I trust regulations over money made. I always buy your crab but I can’t have your desire to meet your bills be more important than my safety. Mother Nature cares not about your choices to fish. Be grateful she’s allowed you the time to create a bias standard.
Thank you for this perspective. It should have been part of this article along with some numbers on freezer crab. I totally get it with respect to DA, but not so sure pick out rates should be driving management. Unless the difference varies wildly with time alone, that should drive price and thereby focus effort on regions with better rates.
If there’s that much crab in the freezer then it would follow that prices should plummet or the catch should be reduced. Having more crabs available to reproduce would be a good thing.
As a consumer, I prefer to trust the state regulators as to when the crabs are safe to eat and when they are adequately developed rather than depending on the opinions of those who have a strong financial motivation to sell premature poisonous crab meat.
There is a season for everything. Humans have the shortest season because we live by a monetary system (created by humans), based upon each animal/plant season. The only season humans can ever really count on coming back annually is cold and flu season. You can’t expect to recover from everything else when you don’t let everything else recover from you first…