There will be no California crab for Christmas again this year.
This marks the sixth consecutive year that the Dungeness crab fishery – one of California’s most valuable fisheries – has faced delays, dealing yet another major blow to local commercial crab fishers. The fishery will remain closed at least through the end of 2024.
“There’s really no other fisheries we have access to, so we just have to wait,” says Brand Little, a fisherman whose main catches through the year include salmon, shrimp, black cod and crab.
But on Dec. 11, the California Fish and Game Commission unanimously approved the expansion of an experimental fishing permit, which doubles the number of fishers under the permit from 20 to 40, allowing them to fish for crab using Sub Sea Sonics ropeless gear this spring. The commissioners also increased the number of crab traps allowed per line from 10 to 50, and extended the interval time – the period fishers have to remove and replace their gear – from 96 hours to seven days.
“This is as good as it gets,” says Geoff Shester, Oceana’s California campaign director and senior scientist.
Ropeless crab traps work by allowing fishers to release a lid with buoys using an acoustic signal before floating to the surface with a rope attached to the trap. While the system isn’t perfect and tends to be slower, Little says, “It works, and it will work for a spring fishery.”
The Dungeness crab season has been shortened at the start and end of the season due to the increased presence of whales feeding in local waters and potential for entanglements. While ropeless traps have been around for some time, they were first used in the crab fishery commercially in California waters under an experimental fishing permit in the spring of 2024.
The use of the fishing gear thus far has shown to be a success. The largest trial of pop-up fishing gear involved 19 commercial Dungeness crab fishers who brought in 229,000 pounds of crab, valued at $1.5 million.
“I want to give them as much opportunity to succeed,” Commissioner Darius Anderson said during the Dec. 11 meeting.
The experimental permit currently allows for use of Sub Sea Sonics’ ropeless trap, but other manufacturers are steadily entering the market. The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation has established a gear lab where fishers can check out ropeless gear in exchange for reporting back data. “It may not be a one size fits all,” says Greg Wells of NMSF. “That’s why we’re creating this library of options.”