California’s commercial Dungeness crab season will remain closed until at least January to protect whales from entanglement in fishing gear. Recreational crabbing will open in most areas Saturday, Nov. 7, but with restrictions on crab traps.
The restrictions target lines connecting traps on the seafloor to surface buoys, which can entangle whales and make it difficult for them to swim, eat or breathe. They have also renewed debate over expanding the use of pop-up gear that could allow fishermen to keep working while reducing the risk to whales.
At least five whales have been confirmed entangled in California Dungeness crab fishing gear this year. Those cases are among 50 whale entanglements by all types of fishing gear reported along the West Coast.
Ryan Bartling with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said increased outreach about reporting entangled whales could help explain the increased number.
“It's not to say that we haven't been making improvements,” said Bartling. “It's just people are looking now, and so we're probably documenting more than would have maybe been picked up in the past.”
Bartling said recovering whale populations could also contribute to more entanglements. Warmer ocean temperatures because of El Niño have also pushed whale food sources closer to shore, increasing the risk of entanglements.
Geoff Shester with the conservation group Oceana said changes like delaying the season haven't helped.
“California has really done a lot,” he said. “We're all pretty disappointed that the entanglement numbers just simply haven't gotten down to those safe levels.”
Shester said the state should expand the use of pop-up style traps, which eliminate the need for lines. He said pop-up gear could allow fishermen to keep working through the spring as whales return to California waters, without putting the animals at risk of entanglement.
“We have a solution, allowing fishermen to continue fishing,” he said. “Why don't we use that?”
Bartling said the technology is still new, and the state is working on how to manage its use and encourage more crab fishermen to adopt it. When the fishery is fully open, as many as 400 boats can be operating, some with up to 500 traps each, he said.
“We don't want to create another situation that would make entanglement risk worse.”
The state plans another assessment of whale entanglement risk in mid-December to determine whether commercial fishing can begin and recreational trap restrictions can be lifted around the new year.
