Ropeless crab gear cleared for spring Dungeness fishery; grants offered.

For the first time, California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife has approved ropeless crab traps as an alternative gear fishers can use in the Dungeness crab fishery during the spring 2026 season.

While several manufacturers are entering West Coast fisheries with ropeless crab traps, Sub Sea Sonics / Guardian Ropeless Systems is the first to be authorized to allow commercial crab fishers to continue operating during seasonal fishery closures between April 1 and July 15, 2026. Another manufacturer, EdgeTech, is expected to receive approval from CDFW, according to Geoff Shester, fisheries innovation director and senior scientist with Oceana.

“All eyes are on—let’s see how this goes in the spring,” says Shester.

Over the last few years, ropeless crab traps, or “pop-up gear” have emerged as an experimental option allowing fishers to deploy a buoy using an acoustic signal, rather than leaving a rope suspended in the water. 

So far, experimental tests have been overwhelmingly successful. Under the Sub Sea Sonics / Guardian Ropeless Systems’ experimental fishing permit last season, in spring of 2025, crabbers deployed and retrieved gear 1,163 times with a more than 98 percent reliability rate. They removed 3,760 vertical lines in the water from April to July, bringing in over 217,000 pounds of crab worth an estimated $1.4 million. 

The trial the previous year involved 19 commercial Dungeness crab fishers who brought in 229,000 pounds of crab, valued at $1.5 million. The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation has been operating a gear lab out of Santa Cruz under a separate experimental fishing permit, offering fishers the opportunity to test gear from different manufacturers.

There is a cost barrier to enter the fishery with this new gear. Sub Sea Sonics / Guardian Ropeless Systems’ equipment costs an estimated $1,200 per gear string—a typical string of 20 traps translates to about $60 per trap. Additional costs, including a deck box, transducer and vessel totals about $2,000, according to Bart Chadwick with Sub Sea Sonics.

Grants are available for fishers wanting to get started with the popup gear this spring. An anonymous philanthropic organization donated $150,000 to provide $5,000 discounts for up to 30 new participants. The Euphotic Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting small, independent commercial fishers along the West Coast, created a program that can provide up to $10,000 in reimbursement for gear. California FarmLink, a nonprofit supporting farmers and fishers, is also offering low interest loan programs. 

“Twelve new fishers decided to enter the fishery just because of that discount coming through,” Shester says. 

The use of the gear during the spring season allows fishers to access a fishery typically closed because of migrating whales.

“The authorization of pop-up gear is a huge step in stabilizing what has been a very shaky fishery over the past decade,” said Brand Little, a commercial Dungeness crab fisherman who participated in the experimental tests for pop-up gear, in a press release. 

“Going into pop-up gear testing, I didn’t think the concept would ever work for our West Coast Dungeness fishery, but it didn’t take long to see that there was a viable path to restoring the late season crab fishery to the entire fleet that has come to depend on it," Little said.

Testing efforts were led by crabbers and supported by gear developers, CDFW, the California Fish and Game Commission, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Ocean Protection Council, Oceana and other conservation organizations.

Those interested in the gear discount program can contact Bart Chadwick with Sub Sea Sonics at bart.chadwick@subseasonics.com.