Fishermen are reeling from closures that threaten the outlook for the local industry.

The first big industry in Monterey Bay was whaling. Then came fishing, and in recent decades, tourism. But the local fishing industry has hung on, if only by a thread. That thread is starting to fray.

This year’s salmon season in California, which typically runs from April through August and is a primary income source for many fishermen, was canceled due to low population numbers brought on by years of drought and diversions from waterways. The commercial crab fishing season, which historically started every Nov. 14, is delayed indefinitely due to the continued presence of humpback whales, which can get entangled in crab fishing gear. And to add on to that, since November, the near-shore groundfish fishery has been closed off the California coast to protect quillback rockfish, which have sharply declined in numbers in recent years. And yet, local fishermen say they are mostly found much further north, between Oregon and southern Alaska.

Moss Landing-based fisherman Walter Deyerle says he’s only caught a quillback two or three times in two decades of fishing, and that the near-shore fishery is where the money is when crab season is closed. He’s now forced to fish further offshore, like he did Dec. 5, when he went out on his boat solo to fish for black cod, aka sablefish. They taste great, but are turned into generic whitefish products and only bring in a fraction of the price of near-shore fish.

And crab season, he says, is far more lucrative around the holidays than it is after, though he doesn’t expect it to open until late December or January.

It’s calling into question whether the region can sustain a local fishery. “Guys are taking electrical jobs, construction jobs and depleting their savings. It costs a lot to keep a boat up and running,” Deyerle says. “They should just change the [crab] season date so you don’t have to wonder at this point. The whales are on a pretty set schedule.”

The state Department of Fish & Wildlife conducts its next risk assessment of the crab fishery Dec. 8.