After a two-month delay, commercial crab season opens on the Central Coast.

Two things that are true, but that can also come into conflict with each other are that most people love to eat crab, and most people love whales. 

After a two-month delay—commercial crab fishing season was slated to start mid-November—Central Coast fisherman will finally be able to start fishing crab tomorrow, Jan. 18, the moment the clock strikes 12:01am. (Traps have been allowed to "soak" in place since 8am on Monday, Jan. 15.)

Unlike some delays in recent years that were caused by high levels of domoic acid in crab meat—a toxin produced by algae and ingested by shellfish (with no apparent ill effects—to them), this year's delay was caused by the continued presence of humpback whales along the Central Coast, which have hung around to eat before migrating south to the Gulf of California for the remainder of the winter. 

But there's a catch: Crab fishermen, until given notice otherwise, will only be able to deploy up to 50 percent of the pots they are permitted for. So, it's probably better to think about it as a "soft" opening of the local crab season, but it's an opening nonetheless. 

The reopening comes amid years of tension between crab fishermen and their longstanding practice of dropping traps with ropes suspended in the water column, and those concerned about the well-being of whales, which can get entangled by those ropes while swimming through the sea. 

The decision came after feedback from a Jan. 10 meeting from the California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group, which supported the soft reopening on the Central Coast. 

A Jan. 11 statement from the California Department of Fish & Wildlife announcing the soft reopening, reads, in part, "This management decision includes exhaustive coordination with affected fishers, businesses and environmental organizations."